Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Heritage lists 16 countries ahead of us. The only English speaking ones are Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Canada and the UK have terrible weather. So I would list Australia and New Zealand as greater.

Index of Economic Freedom - Wikipedia

 

Lol. NZ is 1% the size of the US.

The greatest country on earth is a huge melting pot. That’s what makes it so great. It also creates hurdles like we are witnessing today. Have to take the bad with the good.

 

How are you defining great?

 

Just to note they are seeing resurgence of Covid in Asia. Hong Kong, Japan, Austrailia

Hong Kong did not see this coronavirus wave coming | The Japan Times

"Hong Kong is facing its worst coronavirus outbreak ever, and the city is woefully unprepared for the surge.

With local infections growing to 560 in about two weeks, the Asian financial hub has been caught off-guard by the sudden eruption of infections, close to half of which are untraceable. While other places in the region like Australia are also facing aggressive resurgences, their hospital bed vacancies and testing capabilities appear to outstrip those of Hong Kong’s"


Take home message is this shutdown, shelter, mask, bottom line is it isn't going away even in the places that supposedly had beat it.

Give it 6-8 weeks NY will see upticks in cases again, book it.

 

The worlds defender of the weak, at the forefront of innovation, cultural and artistic trendsetter, most diverse nation, best higher education in the world, most popular world currency to name a few. Not prefect and lots of work to be done. But it’s still the best. Like it or not. What makes NZ the best? You really can’t compare a country to the US unless it faces similar obstacles.

 

Where does the buck stop in this country? Used to be The Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. But for Trump and his supporters, they take no responsibility.

This is a pandemic. That means it's not a local crisis, or state crisis, or even a national crisis, but an international crisis. It requires true leadership from the top down. The goal should have been lowering the spread risk since day one. In addition to not taking responsibility, Trump encouraged people to liberate their state, didn't wear a mask for months, promoted an unproven drug in hydrochloroquine, asked how we could ingest bleach and UV light, and threatened to withhold funds from schools if they don't reopen.

We've shown we could flatten the curve, which was accomplished April to June. A real leader could have kept it flat or keep going down by asking for true sacrifice, patience, and keeping the eye in the prize, which is lowering exposure to the virus. But again, the orange clown occupying the White House is an incompetent leader, and no matter how anyone tries to deflect, the buck still stops at his desk.

 

I guess California Opened too soon also....

 

I thought I was clear in my post, but the factors I looked for were economic freedom, English speaking, and nice weather. I only considered the 16 countries with greater economic freedom than the US. Of those, only four were English speaking, but Canada and UK have terrible weather too much of the year, so that left Australia and New Zealand. It was really a coin flip between those two.

But more generally, the only metrics where we are at the top of the list internationally are incarceration rate and military spending. And if you limit the comparison to developed countries we are also at the top for infant mortality and gun violence.

The US has done great things, we have been great in the past. But we are no longer the world's defender of the weak. We may still be at the forefront of innovation, but if you check the names on those patents being filed in the US, they aren't American names. We do have more opportunities for higher education than any other country in the world (but we aren't at the top of the list per capita). We do certainly have the most popular currency in the world, and will for as long as petroleum is priced in dollars.

 

Add neurological disorders to the long-term effects of COVID-19. One of the local Phoenix news stations was saying recovered patients were suffering from neurological issues, and sure enough, I found this article from a few weeks ago. Death isn't the only issue with contracting this disease, and those who recover have a chance at having long-term issues with their heart, lungs, blood clotting, and now the brain. The logical course of action is to do everything in our power to limit the spread of this disease.

And that would mean not opening schools in places where COVID is prevalent in the community. Places like Florida, which has seen an increase in children hospitalizations from COVID in recent weeks. This would suggest that even more children are positive, as children generally do not have a severe reaction to COVID than adults. This would also suggest children are a source of community spread.

COVID-19 is a nasty disease that has already killed 2 1/2 times more Americans in half a year than the most deadly flu in recent memory. And this during a time where we did lock down and closed schools, all sports, etc. And even if you survive, the long-term effects are still nasty. The best thing we can all do is everything in our power to stop the spread of this disease for as long as possible until either vaccine or effective treatments are discovered.

 

Sounds great. Not sure why more Americans aren't moving to these countries...

 

Canada in particular is seeing a spike in skilled Americans moving there. Apparently, it is up by about 75% over the years 2017-2019.

Skilled workers from the U.S. coming to Canada in large numbers

Right now, many countries will not take in people from the US due to our infection rate.

 

King George III, is that you?

 

Oh no! Everyone will move back in November after Biden wins...

 

Too bad all the “stars” that said they were leaving are still here.

 

The only place I would consider moving to is perhaps AUS, nice climate, more laid back culture, great surf. Since I have a 16yr old,15 yr old and 12 yr old that won't happen anytime soon.

 

Based upon life satisfaction ratings, which includes gender equality, literacy, life expectancy, crime rates, and financial stability, the top ten are Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Iceland, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore, and The Netherlands. The U.S. was rated 13th. Surprisingly, Finland is only 15th.

 

De nero said he will "definitely" leave this time if Trump wins. LOL

 

Mainly because outliers lead to key assumptions being violated, which will throw off analysis.

The example I like to use is to imagine a neighborhood of 10 households where 9 of the 10 are millionaires, but where 1 of the households is Jeff Bezos, an outlier at 100 billion dollars. Including Bezos in averaging the wealth would make it that all his neighbors are billionaires as well even though he's the only one. This would severely skew the distribution and violate any assumption of normality.

 

Your second question is exactly what I'm trying to find out.

What are we basing it on?

 

His counter would be that if your assumptions are violated, you are doing the wrong analysis. Rather than cut real points out of the dataset to make your chosen analysis work better, you should be adjusting your analysis to fit the reality.