COVID-19 vs. our Networks

Wed Mar 18 15:39:20 UTC 2020

On 17/Mar/20 23:47, Rich Kulawiec wrote:

>
> Decisions are no longer based on the greater good or on anticipating worst
> case scenarios or on maximizing preparedness or anything that we might
> hope they're based on.  They're based, coldly and calculatingly, on money.
>
> If you want this to change -- and I sure would like it to change --
> then money needs to be entirely removed from that calculation.  That is
> a problem whose solution lies outside the scope of NANOG.
>

<off_topic>
I've been saying, quietly to friends for a while now, that this system
of money is stretching all of us to the limit, because we are all
chasing it.

In this age of Coronavirus, what good is money if the supermarket
shelves are empty? What good is money if people are dead? Also, money
works because not all of us have it - and yet the goal of any society is
to put it in everyone's hands.

So then, what's the real value [of money] if everyone has the ability to
pay everyone?

Between the Coronavirus and the love spats between Russia and Saudi
Arabia, "artificial" markets have lost 20% of their value. Some
economies with less advanced markets are finding value in other "less
artificial" things, so they can get their toilet paper, hehe :-).
</off_topic>

Seriously though, I echo Rich's comments - this isn't a problem NANOG
can solve, but if the Coronavirus has taught us anything, it's that we
seriously need to re-evaluate this "modern humanity" thing we are all
trying to build, and live.

Mark.