Well, that’s true, except that it’s not easy. Easy to talk about, sure, but not easy to implement without backlash from the moneyed interests that exist.

Most of the world has reacted better than the US. I agree it's not easy, it has not been easy for anyone. But the unwillingness/incapability of the US to suffer backlash from their own moneyed interests is not the norm. It's a symptom of a dysfunctional system. It shouldn't be normalized.

Yes, we value money too much here and don’t care enough about sustainability.

Agreed it's a disturbing realization of the unspoken acknowledgment people in the US have been forced to live with: "capitalism doesn't care if you live or die"

Neither does socialism, communism, or nature.

And I wasn't advocating for any one of those as a fundamentally better system, assuming you mean raw unfettered nature, hunter-gatherer style. And even then it's likely there is a tribe that cares..but I digress.

I don't see how the moneyed interests really have much to do with the COVID-19 response in the US (or lack of it). Few of the people refusing to wear masks belong to the idle rich.

There is nothing special about America in that respect. Plenty of people around the world are not wearing masks when they are supposed to.

What sets America apart is the hyper-shorttermism: go into a lockdown, then come out of it in the middle when it becomes clear that the lockdown has economic consequences (which should have been obvious). Then, go back into lockdowns when it becomes clear that coming out of lockdown at the wrong time lead to a second wave.

There seems to be a particular class of stupid businesspeople, who cannot think beyond next week. This too is not unique to america. What is unique is that in America their desire to bankrupt their own businesses takes precedence over everything else.

Other countries have had second lockdowns or are thinking about it as well, including China. Also, no one in America wants to bankrupt their own businesses (except the lower side of the lower class). Our downfall is our reliance on "repeatable" profits which we then waste by giving them to the rich who then hoard them and don't spend enough.

do you think low probability, high impact events are handled well on average?

No. I think my intention when using the low-probability, high impact examples is that we over-invest by dedicating far too much time and too many resources on events that will likely never happen but we can't even prepare for / respond to the high probability events well. Far better to practice and iterate on improving our response to the latter which will give us the expertise to better handle the former.