Steve James wrote:I think you're right, but I don't think anyone should be gloating just yet because nothing is over.
Who's gloating?
I'm not gloating. I'm fucking furious, humiliated, and trapped overseas.
I have a 3 month old boy and I wasn't able to have him born in America. If we had, I would have been trapped in the states with no job and no place to live. And, fwiw, I also happen to be Jewish, but they don't do circumcisions in China and I can't even fly back to LA to get it done at Cedar Sinai because Trump has fucked the whole country to holy hell.
I also own rental property in LA. But now with lockdown, suddenly I am paying the damn mortgage out of pocket (part of it anyways). That was supposed to be an investment.
How about taking my boy back home for Christmas? Introducing my family? Nope. The US is a disaster zone. Travel from China is blocked for my wife and child and if I go to the US, I will be quarantined for 2 weeks when I get back to China, IF I can get back and let's not forget that airline tickets are like $5,000 now.
This has been an unmitigated disaster from top to bottom.
Everyone is going to have more cases because it's obvious that the virus is not disappearing in the summer. In fact, in the US, the rate of infections seems to be increasing. Though, it's true that is a function of more testing. But, testing doesn't create cases; it simply shows the reality of how widespread the virus is or isn't.
Yep, in our society, the government can't make people do it without being called oppressive. So, the solution is for people to willingly do something they don't like or even feel necessary in order to help someone they don't know somewhere else (maybe even a democrat
).
I've been having this discussion with my wife a lot lately, and other Chinese friends. They are baffled by the US response and tend to ask if it's just because we are so individualist and independent minded. Makes sense. Except that we are not especially more individualistic than many European countries and the only other countries that are as much of a shit show as the US right now are Brazil and Russia, two countries that are culturally quite different from the US.
So all I can tell is that we are a failing state. I am optimistic about November, but by that time we will be back in winter and it's starting to look like we are just going to let this thing burn through the country until virtually everyone gets exposed and either is fine, gets sick, or dies, just like back in 1918. Because even if we throw that piece of living garbage out of office, we won't get a new president until next year. And no matter how responsibly he treats it, by that time we will already be looking at 200,000-500,000 dead.
I can't see the US being safe for me to go back to to see my family for at least another year and a half, and in the meantime, I have to deal with financially supporting my family in the states with my income from China. #fuckingirony