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Top-level
@Tnicholsmd @ct_bergstrom As an economy, we continue to underfund services that are not only societal goods in "normal" times but critical and essential in times of stress (which are all-too-common). Resilience and robustness require surplus capacity. 3 comments
@ct_bergstrom @jallepap @Tnicholsmd it's like what's been done to our medical system. Engineering things thus is great for maximizing returns, but not so great for dealing with unusual spikes in demand. @ct_bergstrom @jallepap I think that’s exactly right. We find and run emergency departments on the thinnest possible level of resilience to maximize profits for all involved. But we fund other emergency services via government funding to have optimal staffing at all times (fire, EMS, etc). I truly cannot fathom why others couldn’t possibly imagine this also being a good idea for medicine. |
Gregory's Server
@jallepap @Tnicholsmd
Yes. And I think what's so interesting to me about this example is that it's not a matter of underfunding resilience. It's a matter deliberately engineering fragility because it turns a profit most of the time.
Thank you. This is helping me so much to clarify my own thinking.