Serious question, I don't have a political agenda by asking this:
How will a virus that hurts <1% of people devastate economies, lockdowns or not?
Economic devastation from lockdowns is clear.
Economic devastation from a virus that primarily hurts the elderly is not clear to me.
Again, I'm not making any points about the value determination of lives saved vs GDP saved, only asking how you quantify the economic impact of a virus.
Travel agents don't always have the best options. I traveled on 5 continents this year, taking 30 flights total. My total cost of flights was also about 7k, compared to the author's same cost for half the flights. I booked everything separately, using Kayak, Hipmunk, and local airline offices in Nepal, Fiji, and Jordan. If you research travel hacking and follow those tips, you can find great deals.
The main bonus for me was the freedom to fly where I chose, rather than where the airline offering the RTW ticket.
I clicked "Indie" and got dubstep...
There seemed to be a very limited selection of songs, but I'd be happy to use it more if there were more songs to listen to.
My plan for the last one was to go to Daytona since I figured the traffic would be horrible in Titusville and the Shuttle takes off to the north anyway. I ended up driving South until I hit traffic, which happened to be extremely close to the launch. I live out of state most of the year, so I was happy to hear the last launch would be during the Summer.
Though it wouldn't have worked well on the last launch due to the clouds, I'm sure there's other launches you could have seen from Daytona.
Another anecdote:
The first launch I saw when I was a little kid, probably seven years old. I was riding in the back seat of my mom's car and happened to look out the back window. When I looked back, I saw the a fireball rising into the sky, which of course was the shuttle.
Also, about two years ago, I was driving home with my girlfriend one night and we saw a star which seemed to be moving higher into the sky. Suddenly, it disappeared. I couldn't find any mention of rocket launches until, after extensive searching, it turned out to be a secret CIA satellite.
Living in Florida, I've been fortunate enough to see a few shuttle launches, as well as various rockets. The sound is really an incredible thing. I watched the last one from the bridge stretching from Titusville to the Kennedy Space Center, about the closest one can get without needing a pass. At that distance, the sound takes around 30 seconds to reach the viewers and it's not even that loud, but you can feel the power behind it.
Even more impressive, I watched STS-131 from my hometown one morning. Even from the West Coast of Florida, I could hear the unique sound and power from the shuttle.
I drove around 400 miles round trip to see the last Shuttle Launch, but it was completely worth it to see, in person, humans going into space. If every member of Congress could experience that at least once, NASA would likely not have any more funding problems.
He's not the only one to lead this lifestyle and write about it. Tim Ferris started a sports supplement company to fund his travels before writing "The 4-Hour Work Week."
One doesn't have to be a programmer or designer to lead a lifestyle like this, though those professions are more location independent by their nature.
Economic devastation from lockdowns is clear. Economic devastation from a virus that primarily hurts the elderly is not clear to me.
Again, I'm not making any points about the value determination of lives saved vs GDP saved, only asking how you quantify the economic impact of a virus.