Thanks for the excerpt, meme. I started reading it but fell asleep before getting too far. I was wishing you would steer us to the meat!
"However, in modelling of pandemic influenza in modern societies, it was found
that once more than about 10% of people are randomly removed from the workforce, the
risks of large-scale societal dislocation increases significantly. is because at this level
of removal it is likely that key people with specialised knowledge will disappear from the
workforce, meaning that key teams or functions cannot operate, which further cascades
through other co-dependent functions throughout social and economic networks."
I'd think that, in our society, the number would be lower than 10%. 10 percent is 30 million people, after all. With so many dead, or incapacitated, or CARING for the aforementioned, our leaders would be running in circles, giving orders in a blind panic (or, even worse, hiding.) More importantly, it feels to me as if our society has fewer leaders/professionals per capita than at other times in the last hundred years. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it really does seem that the U.S. is heavily laden today with "bottom rungers." Assuming that the disease or war... or whatever it is... takes out 10 percent of the population without regard to class, the nation would REALLY be hurting at the upper end. The managers, businessmen, doctors, professionals, and other leaders who really make things happen, would be in short supply at the very time when the press, politicians and teeming masses put out the greatest demands for their service.
To me, 5 percent (15 million dead/disabled/removed) seems high enough to cause utter, irreparable carnage.
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