Maybe also that the talk of preventing a depression is an information hazard when we are at the stage of the pandemic where all-out lockdown is the biggest priority for most of the richest countries. In a few weeks when the epidemics in the US and Western Europe are under control, and lockdown can be eased with massive testing, tracing and isolating of cases, then it would make more sense to freely talk about boosting the economy again (in the mean time, we should be calling for governments to take up the slack with stimulus packages. Which they seem to be doing already).
This argument has the same problem as recommending people don’t wear masks though, if you go from “save lives save lives don’t worry about economic impacts” to “worry about economics impacts it’s as important as quarantine” you lose credibility.
You have to find a way to make nuance emotional and sticky enough to hit, rather than forgoing nuance as an information hazard, otherwise you lose the ability to influence at all.
This was the source of my “two curves” narrative, and I assume would be the approach that others would take if that was the reason for their reticence to discuss.
Maybe also that the talk of preventing a depression is an information hazard when we are at the stage of the pandemic where all-out lockdown is the biggest priority for most of the richest countries. In a few weeks when the epidemics in the US and Western Europe are under control, and lockdown can be eased with massive testing, tracing and isolating of cases, then it would make more sense to freely talk about boosting the economy again (in the mean time, we should be calling for governments to take up the slack with stimulus packages. Which they seem to be doing already).
This argument has the same problem as recommending people don’t wear masks though, if you go from “save lives save lives don’t worry about economic impacts” to “worry about economics impacts it’s as important as quarantine” you lose credibility.
You have to find a way to make nuance emotional and sticky enough to hit, rather than forgoing nuance as an information hazard, otherwise you lose the ability to influence at all.
This was the source of my “two curves” narrative, and I assume would be the approach that others would take if that was the reason for their reticence to discuss.