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The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

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Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#81

Post by fauigerzigerk »

rayiner wrote: post #34
chmod775 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think spending more on military than the next 10 countries combined can be described as "only" in any way. The highest spender are the US, with $732.0 billion, followed by China with $261.0 billion, then India and Russia with $71.1 and $65.1 billion respectively.

Militaries are reliant on domestic production and labor. (Paying Chinese solider costs the government a fraction as much as an American soldier.) So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. For these three countries, that means multiplying by 2x to 4x. Also, the US is particularly inefficient at capital spending. It costs us a billion dollars to build a mile of subway…

>So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. For these three countries, that means multiplying by 3x or 4x.

Where did you get those numbers from? According to the OECD the renminbi PPP rate is 4.198 whereas the the current exchange rate is 7. That's 1.67x not 3x.

https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p...

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#82

Post by samstave »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #57
CydeWeys wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of DoD's budget is not salaries. Only the salaries should be scaled in this way. E.g. many other countries are buying our F-35s at the same price we are. Other countries simply can't get equally effective jet fighters, aircraft carriers, etc., at a third to a quarter of the price.

You're correct, personnel costs is not the majority of DoD costs. However, their "pay and benefits" take up 40% of it's budget ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_... ) Procurement (the most visible part of the budget we hear about) is 20% of the DoD budget.

Also, one needs to take into account Black Budgets - as they are totally opaque and we have no idea what amount of the budget they consume, assuming they are even accounted for in the 700 billion dollar number the budget claims to be.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#83

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

endogui wrote: post #41
chmod775 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think spending more on military than the next 10 countries combined can be described as "only" in any way. The highest spender are the US, with $732.0 billion, followed by China with $261.0 billion, then India and Russia with $71.1 and $65.1 billion respectively.

The US is filling the role of the Roman Empire, securing trade routes to allow efficient scales of tech expertise and production. If that military is scaled back or shown to be obsolete/ineffectual, then globalism itself will come into question. The dark ages were caused by the localizing of production, with local feifdoms losing access to specialized technical expertise. To some extent, this is what we see now with…

So only the US by virtue of "something" has a vested interest in globalism?

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#84

Post by drocer88 »

pgrote wrote: post #68
mensetmanusman wrote: post #14

This is my favorite chart: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/new-covid-deaths-per-mill...

Why is it your favorite chart?

Presumably it is the spike in U.S. deaths on 26 June. The text in the mouseover does say that states added probable deaths on that date.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#85

Post by nl »

catalogia wrote: post #71
rayiner wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Militaries are reliant on domestic production and labor. (Paying Chinese solider costs the government a fraction as much as an American soldier.) So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. For these three countries, that means multiplying by 2x to 4x. Also, the US is particularly inefficient at capital spending. It costs us a billion dollars to build a mile of subway…

No matter which way you slice it, America has a very capable blue water navy while China's barely qualifies. They're on tier with India, Italy, and Russia; only capable of force-projection in their neighborhood. Besides the US, France and the UK are capable of global power projection; that's it. And both of those are in NATO too.

France isn't in NATO.

Edit: ok they are. But they did attempt to withdraw and were only stopped by the 20 year rule. And they still don't have unified nuclear command.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_from_NATO

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#86

Post by candiddevmike »

Melting_Harps wrote: post #69
endogui wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is filling the role of the Roman Empire, securing trade routes to allow efficient scales of tech expertise and production. If that military is scaled back or shown to be obsolete/ineffectual, then globalism itself will come into question. The dark ages were caused by the localizing of production, with local feifdoms losing access to specialized technical expertise. To some extent, this is what we see now with…

> The US is filling the role of the Roman Empire Yeah, and look how that ended. In fact, its entirely apt cautionary tale because due to taxes and an ever increasing cost of living in Rome proper citizen-soldiers (during the Republic) often went bankrupt and fell into destitute while fighting campaigns from Rome's conquest and returned to see the oligarchy take their fields/land and displaced them further and further…

If the above, abridged history of Rome interests you, check out the podcast The History of Rome by Mike Duncan.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#87

Post by sokoloff »

fortran77 wrote: post #66

One of my pet peeves is the way nobody in the Government is caring about safety on air travel. I had to fly recently and someone near me was using a CPAP. Study after study shows that CPAP aerosolizes and spreads virus particles much more rapidly than normal respiration. Various Government agencies warn about this. - https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/wp-content/uploads/sites/197... - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar…

Americans with Disabilities Act may require the airlines to permit CPAP users to travel with the machine. It’s a tough call, but I don’t think “CPAP users are grounded indefinitely” is a fair and equitable position.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#88

Post by detaro »

nl wrote: post #85
catalogia wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter which way you slice it, America has a very capable blue water navy while China's barely qualifies. They're on tier with India, Italy, and Russia; only capable of force-projection in their neighborhood. Besides the US, France and the UK are capable of global power projection; that's it. And both of those are in NATO too.

France isn't in NATO. Edit: ok they are. But they did attempt to withdraw and were only stopped by the 20 year rule. And they still don't have unified nuclear command. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_from_NATO

France is a founding member of NATO.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#89

Post by samstave »

jupp0r wrote: post #54
rayiner wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Militaries are reliant on domestic production and labor. (Paying Chinese solider costs the government a fraction as much as an American soldier.) So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. For these three countries, that means multiplying by 2x to 4x. Also, the US is particularly inefficient at capital spending. It costs us a billion dollars to build a mile of subway…

> So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. Are soldiers with greater purchasing power more effective on the battlefield?

Thats a really interesting question.

My brother was a Colonel in the airforce, Commander of the 10th Medical Wing. He is a really successful doctor who then led the VA for the state of alaska...

He is now CEO for a hospital in Idaho.

The point is that his life path was truly successful for him through the military and he has added great value to the nation through that experience.

Had he been a minion in a more oppressive style regime, such as China - or North Korea, or even Russia, then I would expect he would have been less effective at being such a positive value to those nations as he is to the US.

And this is due only in a small part as to his ability to have a happy, successful material life here in the US and also raise an amazing family.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#90

Post by sethammons »

fortran77 wrote: post #66

One of my pet peeves is the way nobody in the Government is caring about safety on air travel. I had to fly recently and someone near me was using a CPAP. Study after study shows that CPAP aerosolizes and spreads virus particles much more rapidly than normal respiration. Various Government agencies warn about this. - https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/wp-content/uploads/sites/197... - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar…

If they are required by law...
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