In related news I have noticed that most things I search on Google don't show any ads at all. I went hunting for it and found that common household items are showing ads, but other things don't. And most certainly there is no obnoxiousness like an entire page of ads before the content.
I think Google and Facebook are going to deliver a very surprising result.
For a few quarters. They'll survive and be back where they are now when the economy bounces back (whenever that may be). They could take a 100% cut for several quarters without cutting expenses. Small ad companies are the ones that will really suffer. They don't have Google's deep pockets and diversification.
Why does your paper have to be so one sided though? I live in LA and won't subscribe because your paper has always followed an agenda.
My paper? I live in NYC. One sided? There is a quote (forget who) "Facts Have a Well-Known Liberal Bias". I'll leave it at that.
A quote by a liberal (Krugman) writing an opinion piece for the nytimes is hardly an argument. He even had to follow it up to specify that they had a center-left bias.
We’ve had more documented covid-19 deaths in ~6 weeks than we usually have murders in an entire year and it hasn’t even peaked yet. We have no clue how many cases there even are because we’ve utterly failed to do mass testing. Serious question: do you have any family, friends, or even acquaintances that you would prefer not to have 3-6 weeks of terror and complete misery with a non-trivial chance of permanent disabil…
Do you understand that millions of people are now out of work and won't be able to support their families, businesses are collapsing, calls to suicide lines are up massively, and society is general is not functioning? This is a complex issue. Using hyperbolic emotional appeals to drown out discussion is not the right move.
In the end no one will know if it was worth it since no country went in the other direction and just lived with it. The UK tried for a bit but then reacted harshly as the situation worsened.
Maybe not doing anything would've resulted in a few months of medical chaos and not much more, maybe it would've destroyed whole societies. But the polls I'm aware of show that the majority of people is supportive of measures nearly everywhere (I'm not aware of a poll that shows the opposite). In democracies, you'd expect politicians to act if the majority and experts support it.
> other countries haven't locked down hard and aren't seeing a big spread Let’s be precise. Some other countries haven’t locked down hard and aren’t seeing a big spread yet . You mentioned Sweden. Here was Time a few days ago: > A head doctor at a major hospital in Sweden says the current approach will “probably end in a historical massacre.” He says healthcare workers at his hospital who have tested positive for the…
Stockholm (the worst hit part of Sweden) has about half the deaths per capita of the state New York (26 deaths per 100k vs 56 deaths per 100k) despite Sweden having laxer restrictions. And Stockholm is generally more densely populated. So while I too am a bit skeptical of the Swedish policies it is doing pretty average on a global scale. Worse than some countries with harsh lockdown but also better than some countrie…
Without air traffic and closed borders, a country that's not that affected could get through it with few measures. Not sure if many countries are still at that stage but it's no coincidence that international travel hubs got affected worst.
I think Google and Facebook are going to deliver a very surprising result.
For a few quarters. They'll survive and be back where they are now when the economy bounces back (whenever that may be). They could take a 100% cut for several quarters without cutting expenses. Small ad companies are the ones that will really suffer. They don't have Google's deep pockets and diversification.
Facebook will be in a great position with people having more and more phone time due to the quarantine. Might be a short term hit but a big boost down the road
I’m definitely in the camp that “the cure cannot be worse than the disease” itself. Sitting in California where there are so few cases makes me wonder if the economic toll is totally worth it. Seems like we’ve used a tsunami to put out a campfire.
The economic impact was going to happen one way or the other.
Things are much worse at Gannett, parent company of usatoday. Personally, being laid off on March 31! Almost every employee is effected at this time, either furloughed for few hours a week, pay cut or let go !!
That sucks, mate. I hope it works out for the best long term.
> other countries haven't locked down hard and aren't seeing a big spread Let’s be precise. Some other countries haven’t locked down hard and aren’t seeing a big spread yet . You mentioned Sweden. Here was Time a few days ago: > A head doctor at a major hospital in Sweden says the current approach will “probably end in a historical massacre.” He says healthcare workers at his hospital who have tested positive for the…
Anders Tegnell - author of Swedish strategy says that the measures are working and deaths are concentrated in Somali, Iraqi and Syria - born population. https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/coronaviruset/folkhalsomynd... https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/2Gx0Ev/fodda-i-somalia-... Country of birth Number of cases Over-representation Somalia 283 7 Turkiet 150 5,1 Irak 242 2,9 Finland 188 2,3 Eritrea 55 2,1 Syrien 197 1…
Maybe it's just concentrated on poorer parts of the population? Generally poorer people tend to live closer together and can't afford staying home when they're sick. Immigrants tend to be poorer in most countries, including Sweden. I'm not sure how it helps to name place of birth for infected, finding out the actual factors determining the spread would be more helpful.