I suspect if masking continues for long enough, societies will lose herd immunity to essentially all viruses. In most cases that would take 5-10 years, though.
As a hardcore capitalist, I do not understand why the government gives companies money under any circumstances. The government should provide fast business courts (like Delaware), decharter any company that abuses their market power, price in externalities like pollution and otherwise never give money to companies.
His first wife gave a TED talk where she didn’t name him but described her first husband (Dan Price) dragging her around their family home by her hair and beating her to near death. No surprise here.
Have a few friends at Salesforce. Few companies are more ruthless about firing people for missing a single quarter of quota. Guess sales reps don't fall under the category of stakeholders with the desired political capital.
It feels like a lot of money, but I'd point out that even venture's blockbuster 2021 year, where it raised ~$128B in funding, is still far less money than Apple's ~$202B and Google's ~$169B cash on hand. Those are single companies.
The heterodox truth is that startups are undervalued for their value potential. When single (venture backed) companies all have more cash than the entire ecosystem on their balance sheet, it becomes clear that the market is undervalued.
What would you pick? - A slow and growing endemic with a huge death and economic toll or a short but ruthless restrictions for a 2-3 weeks? I'd pick the latter any time! We saw how better China fared compared to the rest of the world so far!