<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">From: extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" class="">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Least of our problems? <br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">?Yes, the least of our problems.<br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Lack of a balanced budget will be the CAUSE of our problems. <br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">?Failure to balance the budget created the COVID-19 virus? John K Clark<br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">No, failure to balance the budget is a reason why we will not and cannot deal effectively with the Covid-19 virus. We will not have the option to stay closed: people have needs, and they need to get to their jobs and businesses, forthwith.<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">What I see in those insisting we keep everything closed is a stunning lack of empathy for those who are not still getting their paychecks.<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">spike<br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><div class="">What I see in those insisting that we send people back to work is a stunning lack of empathy for those who will die because they were forced back to work.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Empathy for people not getting pay checks vs. empathy for people getting sick and dying: what a terribly difficult choice!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;" class=""><div class="">Let’s reason this out. What do we know?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You can give people money.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You can’t reanimate people. (Unless someone on the list has really been holding out on us!)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Hmmm….wait a second….I’m sure I can figure this out.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Let’s give the people money!</div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Additionally, please remember what money money is: trust symbols. Either you trust the government, or the blockchain, or the relative scarcity and symbolism of Au. It is all trust. What is going to increase trust in the system the most right now? Giving people money so that they can pay for food and essentials.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In 2008 people all over the world gave the banks, and remember ‘corporations are people too’, so so so so much money to keep them alive. It is time to tell the banks that they quite literally OWE US THEIR LIVES. If the government takes care of the people, which is its job, and the banks are prevented from using this pandemic as a ‘business opportunity’ everything becomes very simple.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Furthermore, to all the ‘libertarians’ who are right now thinking ‘we don’t want a nanny state’, consider this scenario:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;" class=""><div class="">You go to the hospital. (wheeze, wheeze, cough, cough)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You: Doc, I need a ventilator.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Doc: Nah.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You: But I have golden plus premium private heath insurance, the best that money can buy!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Doc: *shrug*</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You: I’ll sue, I’ll call the police! (Translation: I’ll tell Nanny!)</div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The American failure that were are witnessing, and might be witnessing needlessly accelerate, is exactly the failure of American empathy. Empathy is the root of all societies.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">On the other hand this same failure of empathy might be a triumph for capitalism. The failure of empathy is basically Ayn Rand in a nutshell. Too bad for the people reading this is the fact that capital is money, and money is trust, trust only originates from people, and dead people don’t trust.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Empathy, is something the strong have. Empathy, is the granting of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, …nth chances. Empathy is the only exit from the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’. Empathy works because unless you live on the move and never meet the same people twice your empathy will eventually be reciprocated.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Empathy builds trust.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A post most emphatically about empathy by,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Omar Rahman</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>