7 ms·

Excuse a bit of hyperbole, but what sort of medieval nightmare-world are we living in when the citizens of the world's most revered democracy are waiting with b

Excuse a bit of hyperbole, but what sort of medieval nightmare-world are we living in when the citizens of the world's most revered democracy are waiting with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy on fighting a viral pandemic? Gates Foundation, research, etc etc. I get it. He's been involved with health stuff for a while. In theory, too, I'm open to a good idea regardless of its source. But this remains a guy who dollars to doughnuts I'd bet does not know how much milk costs at his supermarket. And he's telling us about chipping and digital tattoos? It'd be legit pretty hilarious if it weren't so insane.

jlawson 7y ago
Bill called this years ago. He's also incidentally done more to save lives from disease than possibly any other living human, having prevented millions of deaths by malaria and other illnesses purely because he wanted to. There is lots of other information out there from doctors and scientists. We needed that and we got that. The point here is to get Bill's unique and valuable high-level perspective. Nobody is 'waiting with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy'; this is ridiculous and I think you'll know it if you read it back with even the slightest attempt to look at the situation neutrally.
- foldr 7y ago
  >Bill called this years ago Pandemics happen from time to time. Anyone can "call" the next pandemic. BG is not an expert on any of this stuff and has nothing to add. We need less noise, not more, at times like this.
- logjammin 7y ago
  If he's so prescient about pandemics, why didn't he spend the last 20 years, I don't know, making sure healthcare workers in his own darned city had enough masks and gloves to deal with one? Surely he could've saved a few lives in his own backyard while we was busy in Africa, right?
  - raisedbyninjas 7y ago
    This isn't how effective altruism works.
    - mistermann 6y ago
      Maybe it should be. Think about it this way: had he done this, would it have made things better, worse, or no change? And don't forget: had he looked into this, he would have realized that they were dramatically unprepared, and I suspect he would have been smart enough to assume that there was a possibility that the same state of affairs may exist in other cities, and then look into that. Did this thought not cross his mind? It seems like an interesting question.
  - kick 6y ago
    Isn't this the wrong time for nationalism? If you can save a hundred lives somewhere, or save ten at home for the same price, why are the people "in his own darned city" more important? Especially given that "in his own darned city" there are other billionaires to handle that?
- glofish 7y ago
  > Bill called it If he really called it he would be prepared. Right now it sounds like he was just repeating what he heard from others for the shock value You give a presentation on pandemic - you are the richest guy on the planet, yet you have nothing that demonstrates that you took it seriously, that's not calling it
remcob 7y ago
I'll take you on that bet. Given his work on poverty, I wouldn't be surprised if he knows the approximate price of milk in supermarkts around the world. IMHO, The primary thing wealth gives you is the time and resources to understand society in great depth. I just wish more wealthy people took that opportunity, but Gates is one of the leaders here.
Reedx 7y ago
It's not really about wealth, though. No one is asking or cares what the Walton heirs would have to say. It's the fact that Bill is smarter than the people in charge of our institutions. And he has a lot of experience in this domain. And has been warning about exactly this problem for many years. Indeed he warned that pandemics were our biggest blindspot and threat. E.g., See his TED talk from 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI
- logjammin 7y ago
  Put aside for a second the fact that being rich enough from word processing software to surround yourself with experts and repeat what they tell you does not (necessarily) make you an expert. Apart from that, I agree with the thrust of what you're saying: he's not the Waltons, and he's funded meaningful public health work. The point I'm trying to make in my original comment isn't about BG himself, it's exactly about "the people in charge of our institutions". Rereading it, I didn't make this as clear as possible, so let me take another stab: We think of ourselves as an advanced democracy (or democratic republic) and economy. We certainly pay for that in taxes and in other ways (obviously we're not Nordic in terms of income tax, but still). But when it's go-time for that advanced democracy, for the institutions and experts we pay to train through years of schooling in public universities and then pay to command highly specialized bodies at local, state, and federal levels, their performance is, excuse my language, so fucking dismal that the vaunted CDC cannot make a working test, that there are not enough latex gloves in that advanced democracy to keep doctors and nurses from getting sick ... their performance is so dismal and we're so untrusting of the basic decency and competence of our experts and elected officials that we crowd into a Reddit AMA to hear a software magnate maybe have a better solution ... Is that not just bizarre to you? Infuriating? Sad? I fully grant that I may be alone in feeling this way. On some level I'm reacting strongly to the fact that the country I immigrated to as a teenager is revealing itself to be profoundly third-world in certain ways - like, this isn't what I thought I signed up for. Like I said earlier, there's something truly funny about it at the same time that it's terribly sad. (One funny thing is that the solution the guy comes up with is "let's put a microchip in everyone!".) Don't mean to impose my views on anyone, and again, I'm not saying Gates has enabled, via Windows wealth, zero good in the world. It's not about Gates; it's about us.
room505 6y ago
Bill guessing the cost of household goods - https://youtu.be/ad_higXixRA https://youtu.be/ad_higXixRA
SahAssar 6y ago
> most revered democracy What?
jug 6y ago
Not sure what you mean. You even invalidated your own argument. If he has a vested interest in eradicating malaria (“involved in health stuff for a while”), why would it be a massive disadvantage there to have money?
onetimemanytime 6y ago
I read it for you and posted why he should be listened to: >>Over the years I’ve had a chance to study diseases like influenza, Ebola, and now COVID-19—including how epidemics start, how to prevent them, and how to respond to them. The Gates Foundation has committed up to $100 million to help with the COVID-19 response around the world, as well as $5 million to support our home state of Washington. I’m joined remotely today by Dr. Trevor Mundel, who leads the Gates Foundation’s global health work, and Dr. Niranjan Bose, my chief scientific adviser. Ask us anything about COVID-19 specifically or epidemics and pandemics more generally.
Justin_K 6y ago
I'm going to go as far as saying you just don't get it. Here is Bill Gates, successfully running global public health programs and is someone who actually does care ... then there's idiots like you criticizing him because he's "wealthy".
- drukenemo 6y ago
  You ignored this part, which I do find worrisome: “ And he's telling us about chipping and digital tattoos?”.

jlawson 7y ago

Bill called this years ago. He's also incidentally done more to save lives from disease than possibly any other living human, having prevented millions of deaths by malaria and other illnesses purely because he wanted to. There is lots of other information out there from doctors and scientists. We needed that and we got that. The point here is to get Bill's unique and valuable high-level perspective. Nobody is 'waiting with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy'; this is ridiculous and I think you'll know it if you read it back with even the slightest attempt to look at the situation neutrally.

foldr 7y ago
>Bill called this years ago Pandemics happen from time to time. Anyone can "call" the next pandemic. BG is not an expert on any of this stuff and has nothing to add. We need less noise, not more, at times like this.
logjammin 7y ago
If he's so prescient about pandemics, why didn't he spend the last 20 years, I don't know, making sure healthcare workers in his own darned city had enough masks and gloves to deal with one? Surely he could've saved a few lives in his own backyard while we was busy in Africa, right?
- raisedbyninjas 7y ago
  This isn't how effective altruism works.
  - mistermann 6y ago
    Maybe it should be. Think about it this way: had he done this, would it have made things better, worse, or no change? And don't forget: had he looked into this, he would have realized that they were dramatically unprepared, and I suspect he would have been smart enough to assume that there was a possibility that the same state of affairs may exist in other cities, and then look into that. Did this thought not cross his mind? It seems like an interesting question.
- kick 6y ago
  Isn't this the wrong time for nationalism? If you can save a hundred lives somewhere, or save ten at home for the same price, why are the people "in his own darned city" more important? Especially given that "in his own darned city" there are other billionaires to handle that?
glofish 7y ago
> Bill called it If he really called it he would be prepared. Right now it sounds like he was just repeating what he heard from others for the shock value You give a presentation on pandemic - you are the richest guy on the planet, yet you have nothing that demonstrates that you took it seriously, that's not calling it

remcob 7y ago

I'll take you on that bet. Given his work on poverty, I wouldn't be surprised if he knows the approximate price of milk in supermarkts around the world. IMHO, The primary thing wealth gives you is the time and resources to understand society in great depth. I just wish more wealthy people took that opportunity, but Gates is one of the leaders here.

Reedx 7y ago

It's not really about wealth, though. No one is asking or cares what the Walton heirs would have to say. It's the fact that Bill is smarter than the people in charge of our institutions. And he has a lot of experience in this domain. And has been warning about exactly this problem for many years. Indeed he warned that pandemics were our biggest blindspot and threat. E.g., See his TED talk from 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI

logjammin 7y ago
Put aside for a second the fact that being rich enough from word processing software to surround yourself with experts and repeat what they tell you does not (necessarily) make you an expert. Apart from that, I agree with the thrust of what you're saying: he's not the Waltons, and he's funded meaningful public health work. The point I'm trying to make in my original comment isn't about BG himself, it's exactly about "the people in charge of our institutions". Rereading it, I didn't make this as clear as possible, so let me take another stab: We think of ourselves as an advanced democracy (or democratic republic) and economy. We certainly pay for that in taxes and in other ways (obviously we're not Nordic in terms of income tax, but still). But when it's go-time for that advanced democracy, for the institutions and experts we pay to train through years of schooling in public universities and then pay to command highly specialized bodies at local, state, and federal levels, their performance is, excuse my language, so fucking dismal that the vaunted CDC cannot make a working test, that there are not enough latex gloves in that advanced democracy to keep doctors and nurses from getting sick ... their performance is so dismal and we're so untrusting of the basic decency and competence of our experts and elected officials that we crowd into a Reddit AMA to hear a software magnate maybe have a better solution ... Is that not just bizarre to you? Infuriating? Sad? I fully grant that I may be alone in feeling this way. On some level I'm reacting strongly to the fact that the country I immigrated to as a teenager is revealing itself to be profoundly third-world in certain ways - like, this isn't what I thought I signed up for. Like I said earlier, there's something truly funny about it at the same time that it's terribly sad. (One funny thing is that the solution the guy comes up with is "let's put a microchip in everyone!".) Don't mean to impose my views on anyone, and again, I'm not saying Gates has enabled, via Windows wealth, zero good in the world. It's not about Gates; it's about us.

room505 6y ago

Bill guessing the cost of household goods - https://youtu.be/ad_higXixRA https://youtu.be/ad_higXixRA

SahAssar 6y ago

> most revered democracy What?

jug 6y ago

Not sure what you mean. You even invalidated your own argument. If he has a vested interest in eradicating malaria (“involved in health stuff for a while”), why would it be a massive disadvantage there to have money?

onetimemanytime 6y ago

I read it for you and posted why he should be listened to: >>Over the years I’ve had a chance to study diseases like influenza, Ebola, and now COVID-19—including how epidemics start, how to prevent them, and how to respond to them. The Gates Foundation has committed up to $100 million to help with the COVID-19 response around the world, as well as $5 million to support our home state of Washington. I’m joined remotely today by Dr. Trevor Mundel, who leads the Gates Foundation’s global health work, and Dr. Niranjan Bose, my chief scientific adviser. Ask us anything about COVID-19 specifically or epidemics and pandemics more generally.

Justin_K 6y ago

I'm going to go as far as saying you just don't get it. Here is Bill Gates, successfully running global public health programs and is someone who actually does care ... then there's idiots like you criticizing him because he's "wealthy".

drukenemo 6y ago
You ignored this part, which I do find worrisome: “ And he's telling us about chipping and digital tattoos?”.