Covid-19 Pandemic (Corona Virus)

[Mirek]

Someone made the point that all those hundreds of billions spent on ‘defence’ each year are not a great deal of use now that we face an actual threat to our health and way of life.

To have no army is not a solution to anything. That's just stupid. There is a very old but very true saying. If you don't want to feed your own army, sooner or later you will feed someone else's.

The main point is that states can't use their money effectively. There is enough money but the money just sinks in ineffective and ever growing bureaucracy.

Also the priorities. There was no pandemic in the world for one hundred years and no major war in Europe for seventy five years. When nobody remembers how it was back in those days, nobody is scared enough to prepare himself - even though purelly logically the next disaster has to come one day. So while our forfathers had to cope with many epidemics, wars or other disasters and they were preparing for them, we've been spending money on our comfortable life thinking that nothing can happen to us.

This is as well one of the drawbacks of democracy. Politicians are chosen for 4-5 years and they have to deliver something on a very short term. Selling the public an idea to spend their money on something which may come in next fifty years or maybe not, is near impossible task.

It doesn't need to be a pandemic, not even a war. Just imagine what would happen in London after a week-long blackout. I saw the result of a simulation game for Prague and it was nothing nice to read. We are simply unprepared.

Ask yourself. Would you vote for a man whose program is to spend a quarter of the state budget on preparations against an armagedon of any kind instead of for example social benefits?