The idea of "herd immunity" is that the immunized proportion is great enough that an introduction of the disease results in few infections and the disease dies out again, thus protecting members of the "herd" who aren't immunized also. For a region to be "post-herd-immunity", outbreaks coming from unimmunized communities or from places which never had herd immunity would have to be self-sustaining in the larger once-herd-immune population. Is that the case? I don't know, the article doesn't say. I doubt it, as it appears the Texas outbreak (largest in the US) remains concentrated in the particular community it started in.

So it appears to me this is sensationalism, we are not seeing the breakdown of herd immunity as a whole but rather a very large outbreak among a subpopulation that was never herd immune. There will be (and has been) spread to the general population, but so far I don't see evidence that there will be a return of endemic measles; the US used to have over half a million cases a year with a much lower population. In the meantime, might want to avoid the outbreak areas if you have a not-yet-immunized child or some reason to believe immunization has failed.

I want management to worry about why what I'm doing makes money and I worry about doing it. They are in fact doing that, of course. The reason they ask engineers to justify whatever they are doing in the moment in terms of its direct effect on the bottom line is to make them feel insecure and get them to work harder and not ask for more pay. And of course sadism.

So what would predict would happen to the industry if there was no (federal) Income Tax?

Obviously all would be rainbows and unicorns.

There's no question of there not being a Federal Income Tax. The question is whether software engineer salaries are deductible in the year the expense is incurred or whether they have to be amortized over 5 years. In the latter case, a fast-growing software company would show a profit for tax purposes much sooner than they have an actual cash profit. Unfortunately, they can't amortize the tax payment; they have to pay the taxes right up front out of cash. So, expenses $50 million, income $20 million, profit $10 million, and now the company has to pay $2.1 million in taxes.

But even so, history suggests that the pendulum will swing again.

Or it won't, because Section 174 changes have stopped it. You now have to amortize costs of employing software engineers over 5 to 15 years. This makes it untenable for a startup to grow, because they get taxed on paper profits they did not actually realize. Big tech of course likes this because it limits competition.

Amazon is the company which figured out you could make money in tech by treating engineers like chattel and constantly demanding they justify their jobs by reporting on how exactly what they were doing made Bezos more money. It just took some time and a general industry downturn for the rest of the industry to adopt it.

Alas, I bought mine before Google owned Nest.

You don't find whiskey flavor at your local Target or grocery store.

Well, Target doesn't seem to have it. But Walmart carries Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce

Jack Daniel's BBQ Sauce is crafted with the finest ingredients and seasoning with a special blend of spices and infused with the unmistakable taste of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

The point is most don't like booze.

The point is wrong.

No one takes their first sip of whiskey and says..."YES...this is for me!"

I don't see why not. It's warm and smokey. I found my first sip TOO smokey, but maybe if I'd started with something less so I would have said exactly that.

No one buys whiskey or tequila flavored stuff.

Of course, they do, as a search of Amazon would reveal.

Hard times produce a drunk populace. A drunk populace produces better times. Better times produce a sober populace. A sober populace produces hard times. We're in for hard times.

I am certain China will continue to be willing to freely share its pathogens with the United States.

They pay you for four months and if they don't hire you full time you've got plenty of time to still go to college. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. If they DO hire you, then there's the question about whether that's the right move. On the one hand you replace 4 years of expense with 4 years of earning. On the other, lacking a degree could make it hard to change jobs in the future.