CDC's Own Data Shows Masks Don't Stop the Virus

 The CDC's own data shows that masks mandates don't do anything to stop the virus. Why do they keep putting out the mask myth? 

The Poor are Getting . . . Oh, wait.

 

Oxfam’s new report rails against a “40-year period of neoliberalism, during which economic policy choices have been purchased by rich, powerful and corrupt elites”.

But let's not let reality intrude. 

The Media Drives Polarization

 

 

This is pretty clearly driven by the media. The more time you spend amongst a group (like listening to Fox News CNN), the more “extreme” opinions you will develop. Examples that come to mind are racial “oppression”. You might start out thinking that racial discrimination is an unfortunate condition that has been improving slowly over the last 60 years. But if you spend all your time with CNN or MSNBC or Twitter you are now convinced that it is the hidden force behind everything in the world. If you spend your time with Fox News or Rush Limbaugh (RIP), you will become convinced that racism is mostly a fabricated tool used by Democrats and racial groups to gain power and spoils. You might not see anything wrong with Billionaires, but if you spend your time at MSNBC, you will soon grow to actually hate them and resent their success. You might not feel particularly strongly about abortion, but if you spend a lot of your time with Fox or at church, you will start to believe abortion really is taking someone’s life.

To the extent that it makes you aware of pertinent facts, this is a good thing. Maybe there’s more racial discrimination than we see ourselves. Maybe what we’re being told by government about masks and vaccines is really false. But then it also reinforces more questionable issues. Trump would have won the election but for fraud. Global warming is causing more extreme weather. The country was founded on racism in 1619.

I get frustrated because the leftists look at cold facts and ignore/deny them. I imagine they look at people like me and are frustrated that we are not more swayed by the strength of their emotional appeals to “fairness”.

If I’m right about this, I don’t see this changing much. Democrats seem to be out to purge the few “moderate” types left in their party. We’re going to see a wave of GOP primary candidates trying to unseat incumbents who aren’t sufficiently devoted to Trump. The only silver lining I can see is that the drift seems to be more toward the conservative camp than the radical left camp. But then, if we take over all three branches in 2025, we’ll be back to listening to the media create hoaxes about whomever is President at that time (I don’t even want to think about how bad it would be if it were Trump).

Is there a way out of this?

Manipulating Public Heath Officials

 From the wonderful book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (written 10 years ago).

One of the experiments he did was pose this question .

Imagine that the United States is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease (!), which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs have been proposed. If chosen

1. 200 people will be saved
2. There is a one-third probability that 600 people will be saved and a two-thirds probability that no one will be saved.

A substantial majority chose A even though the expected number of people saved is identical.

Then he asked the same question, but put it this way:

1. 400 people will die
2. There is a one-third probability that nobody will die and a two-thirds probability that 600 people will die.

Framed this way, a substantial majority chose B. The two are obviously identical in outcomes, yet framing it about deaths versus lives-saved radically changed the selection.

He went on to say, that he was even more disturbed when he posed this to a group of public health officials he was speaking to. They chose the same way. As he put it, “It is somewhat worrying that the officials who make decisions that affect everyone’s health can be swayed by such a superficial manipulation.”

 I’d love to know what they think about this now that we’ve seen pubic health officials be manipulated for real.

Update: Government Subsidies Drive Prices Higher

 An update on the relative price change of different sectors. As always, it is goods and services that are subsidized by government that are increasing much faster than the average and dramatically more than goods and services in the private sector that are not subsidized. 

Rule of reference: The more government is involved, the higher will be the price.