So you define choice by whether or not you like the options?
Monopoly, the only game in town etc etc.
So you define choice by whether or not you like the options?
Monopoly, the only game in town etc etc.
Actually, I am very familiar with that business, at several levels. And feel a great deal of sympathy for people in that industry - even more during COVID.
That's a really hard business to succeed in during the best years.
Then should I assume you know the answer to your own question?
So you define choice by whether or not you like the options?
I Google that for you.
https://www.google.com/search?q=cho...9i57.2079j0j4&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
And bastardizing the definition of a scientific staple word like asymptomatic is very poor science and would not get through peer review or be published.
Now do Hobson's Choice
Well, I do, but I don't think INGO will like it.
The government has the essential power to regulate businesses for the public health.
"essential"
Now do Hobson's Choice
We're not publishing anything here; we're merely holding a discussion. Having a common lexicon facilitates that discussion.
It is useful to differentiate between those who are contagious without symptoms but who will later show symptoms, and those who are contagious without symptoms and who will never show symptoms. Debating over what term to use to describe the different types of people is pointless, and merely distracts from meaningful discourse.
That's not the answer to the question though. Your question was, paraphrasing, what freedom is lost by forcing restaurants to shut down half their capacity? I think the answer is self evident. So I think you already know the answer to THAT question.
So the answer you gave to the wrong question makes me suspect that the question of harm doesn't matter. And that's the problem with policy makers. They're not focused on the harm caused by their solutions. It looks to me like they just want to impose anything to avoid political blame for not doing something.
The issue of harm is exactly why I answered the question (both of them). INGO may not like it, but there is no freedom lost by forcing restaurants to shut down to half their capacity. That wasn't freedom to begin with. That capacity was a governmental decision. We can dislike the evolution of government that led to it, but it doesn't change the current reality.
The harm to the public by having people gathered together is real and quantifiable. Mostly because of a-/pre-symptomatic spreaders, and - unfortunately - people who know they are positive and are not self-isolating or having their family members isolate.
There is sufficient evidence that congregate settings spread COVID and the downside risk of that is death, some chance for every demographic over the age of 19 (from what I can tell).
Nah, I'm not gonna let you out of this one. Your question implied that no freedoms are actually being lost. And you know they are. It's true enough that the governors have the power to do these things. So I guess the only thing that harm has to do with it is the hit to political clout that feeds the practicality of exercising the authority. And given all bull**** going around it's not likely to change.
Let me be explicit, then: no "essential liberty" (which was the actual phrase used)is being lost by limiting capacity to restaurants, or even closing them in the name of a public health emergency.
You concede as much when you say that "governors have the power to do these things." They have that power because of - and this is a risky phrase to use on INGO - the greater good. Ultimately, that's one of the reasons for government, to protect the greater good.
Is that a slippery slope? Yes.
Is that a battle cry for authoritarianism/tyranny by the majority? Yes.
We must remain vigilant to not let that justification continue after the danger passes. (Based on what happened after 9/11, I don't have a great deal of confidence.)
But, there's no essential freedom that gives us authority to go to Chik Fil A.
Edit:
To change "freedom" to "liberty." I don't think it changes the meaning, and we started using them interchangeably.