How would you handle covid 19?

[fromtia]

After doing all the important comedy Dictator things like making vast statues of my head only all over the country, I'd turn my attention to the virus and probably just follow what seems to have been effective in the countries that took their outbreaks seriously, more or less those that took lessons from SARS.

Free and abundant testing, free care for the sick (socialized if you prefer) allocation of national resources to hard hit areas as the Chinese did in Wuhan, certainly cancel public events and restrict some travel, encourage social distancing, use a massive media campaign to disseminate good information, including a bot army of unprecedented size on social media and so on. I'd support the economy by mandating paid sick leave, suspending mortgage payments , foreclosures etc, financial support for businesses and employees that collapse or shutter and so on. A central pandemic command and control unit or task force. That kind of stuff.

[fromtia]

Oh, and firing squads for toilet paper hoarders obviously.

[alfred russel]

Oh, and firing squads for toilet paper hoarders obviously.

While I have invested in many rolls of toilet paper, please note that I am an opportunistic speculator rather than a hoarder. 

[Monoriu]

The Senate has proclaimed you dictator.  You have total power.  All laws are suspended.

What do you do?

Gather a group of public health experts and civil service technocrats.  Tell the experts to come up with a plan, having regard to successful experience in other places.  The plan should be enough to stop the virus without unnecessarily hurting the economy.  Then tell the technocrats to make the plan happen, draft laws, make speeches, enforce the rules etc.  Anybody who opposes the plan will be locked up for good.

While I am at it, I will also make changes to the public health system for the long-term.  Things like building all the new public hospitals that are needed and locking up all the NIMBYers, importing vast numbers of health professionals, getting rid of as many middlemen as I can, etc.  All the needed long term reforms.  I will be very happy if I import so many surgeons, doctors and nurses that they end up making minimum wage. 

The last thing will be self-preservation.  I will demand 10x the pay of the US president, a new identity after retirement, a swiss bank account, a 3,000 square feet house in a place of my choosing, life pension in the form of bearer US treasury bonds with coupons attached, life time secret service protection, 20 foreign passports, public agreement never to prosecute me, etc.

[Admiral Yi]

You want all those goodies in exchange for telling someone else to take care of it? 

BTW, no such as bearer Treasury bonds.

[Eddie Teach]

Good luck "importing" trained health professionals paying minimum wage.

[Monoriu]

Good luck "importing" trained health professionals paying minimum wage.

Well, HK minimum wage would be seen in a different light by, say, Nigerians. 

[Eddie Teach]

They're not going to choose HK minimum wage over professional wages in the West.

[Sheilbh]

They're not going to choose HK minimum wage over professional wages in the West.

Yeah - I mean the NHS has loads of Nigerian and Filipino members of staff so at least you'll have to compete with those wages

[Monoriu]

Minimum wage would be extreme, but the point is to import enough foreign workers to significantly drag down local wages. 

[grumbler]

I thought HK types were supposed to be the archmages of capitalism, and we have one arguing to lower prices in order to increase supply.

You wouldn't do well in my introductory economics class.

[Monoriu]

I thought HK types were supposed to be the archmages of capitalism, and we have one arguing to lower prices in order to increase supply.

You wouldn't do well in my introductory economics class.

Right now, HK's market for doctors and nurses isn't free.  Salaries are kept artificially high by sky high barriers to entry.  The self-governing doctors' professional licencing body won't let foreign doctors work in HK, no matter how qualified they are, because they want to protect their own.  The number of medical graduates is also limited by the government. 

If I rewrite the rules and say anybody who is qualified to practise medicine and surgery in the world, regardless of race, country of residence, etc, can work in the public hospitals in HK, and any and all protesting/striking local doctor is jailed for life, there will be a flood of qualified doctors from all over the world to fight for the right to work in our public hospitals.  They pay really well now.  An increase in supply of that scale will drive down prices. 

[DGuller]

I thought HK types were supposed to be the archmages of capitalism, and we have one arguing to lower prices in order to increase supply.

You wouldn't do well in my introductory economics class.

I think he's arguing the converse: increase supply to lower prices.

[Eddie Teach]

True. He just vastly overestimates the supply available.

[Monoriu]

True. He just vastly overestimates the supply available.

Hong Kong is a magnet for Mainlanders.  Having a HK ID is a source of pride and prestige.  Just tell them there is no internet firewall here, and the government can't take their flats away at will.  HK doctors also earn a lot more than Mainland ones.  HK doctors make all sorts of threats against importing Mainland doctors.  They know they are totally screwed if their little protectionist guild fails.