So - and this is a quite serious question, since I usually don't buy into the Tin Foil crap: are they doing this on purpose to kill people, or is it just pure greed and damn the consequences?

Hell, at this point, I am 50/50, but... in the end, it's probably both.

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We're fucked. There will be no happy ending here; there is no going back to 'normal.'. There are only bad outcomes and worse outcomes. And we don't get to choose those, either.