More Possibilities We Are Not Properly Prepared For

And honestly here, Capitalism isn't the only problem. This is also just a high cluster fu*k situation simply because of both human nature, and the inherent difficulties involved with getting a panicky public, and what is actually helpful in dealing with so many sick people, on the same page. All coupled with a political system that just tends to be geared towards pandering to popular will at a time when hard decisions are required concerning triage, and putting resource where it will have the greatest practical deterrent in ceasing both the spread of the disease, while also trying to treat those with the best chances of positive outcomes.

Having said that, however, still doesn't change the fact that one of the biggest factors in stopping us from doing more effective preparation work before hand is where the money comes from to do not only more, as well as more extensive, simulations, but to also actually put any of the measures found in these exercises into effect. Which of course has always been an ongoing problem. And then you add the reluctance of the drug companies, or major health service providers, to do anything that isn't a profit provider, or a profit detriment.

So we continue on with what is actually a surprising amount of looking into this, considering that all involved probably know that the serious money it will take to truly be prepared is likely never to be forthcoming; and we do that because it isn't a question of if it will happen again, only when. Just like a lot of other disasters, both natural and otherwise, that are also just a question of when.

To say that this is not the way it should be is also, unfortunately, both a laughably naive bit of obviousness, and a really telling indication of just how much we've given up being responsible for ourselves. Because if we really were willing to take full responsibility for ourselves we would do whatever we needed to do to make the extensive, larger system changes, required to remove these old notions of cost that keep us from doing what ought to be obvious when we try to think clearly about the future; which is certainly what running big, simulating thought experiments like this are supposed to be all about. And if you aren't in a position to be that serious in the first place, are you just doing the same, only sort of effective behaviors if your lucky, over and over again, spinning your wheels so to speak to little effect, just to look good? Or to pretend you are actually doing something meaningful about it?

In my opinion, unless we are willing to take on the comprehensive change that decades of ignoring what vast new technological abilities have wrought, we are doomed to live, for the brief time left us, that famous definition for insanity: You know, the one where you do the same thing over and over again, but somehow convince yourself that you will get different results this one "next time."

The Terrifying Lessons of a Pandemic Simulation