Uh.. cool, good luck 👍

Don't forget to wear your mask, be safe!

Sir, This is a Wendy's.

:V

Still needs to be careful around it.
Assuming the stats are correct, about 1 person in 50 died from it. (or just over 2%)
219M cases / 4.55M deaths

That's pretty close to the death related to various preventable health conditions.

Meanwhile, if you look at the odds of dying from a car accident, they're closer to 1/100
So you're about 2x as likely going to die from Covid (in average) than car accidents.
Now, look at all the laws and regulation to prevent car accidents.
Who can or cannot drive, how or what they can drive, etc.. etc..

That's not counting the fact surviving it doesn't mean you get back without damage.
Tons of people had their lungs fucked over it and their health may be permanently worsen by the virus.
Still too early to make such conclusion ofc, but it's not something people usually want.

I like the car accident example because it too can leave someone worse even if they survived.

Of course, my examples weren't perfect but they were there to illustrate a point.
Though, my main point is just that we got to be careful.
Especially given our aging society.

My point about cars was to say how most people don't look at the laws around cars as being tyrannical.
We understand the risk associated with vehicles and we want people to be safe.
So we make regulation to ensure the safety of people.

A virus unfortunately spread, so laws and regulations must be put in place to reduce that spread and as a result reduce the chance of death.
Personally, I think the current restrictions are a necessary evil as without them things could go much worse

I mean, barely 40 years ago many places didn't have strict laws against drunk driving which is unthinkable in today's standards.
Same goes for enforcing seatbelts etc...

It was just assumed people had common sense and decency to avoid getting into trouble but it was proven time and time again it's not the case.
Just look at the start of the pandemic... There were lots of people recording themselves licking various surfaces, from guardrails to toilet bowls.

I wish everyone could be 25 years old in perfect health condition and a strong immune system but that's unfortunately not the case.
Obesity is a major problem in today's society and from what I understand it can cause severe health issue which can be worsen by a virus such as Covid.

I recognize 2 big source of Bias which affects all of us

1) Human being are quite selfish, So any inconvenience that affect them personally is usually exaggerated.
It's totally normal and not necessarily a bad thing, but we need to be cautious of it.

2) We can't see what we prevent so we tend to underestimate the actual risks
If someone stop smoking, does it directly prevent them from getting lung cancer in the future?
Well... it's complicated so "No" would be a better answer.
Someone could then claim they should be free to smoke everywhere they want because the health risk is low
Completely disregarding the effect it has on others around them.

I'm curious, what would you do in this situation?

Hmm, well the automobile laws do affect our life in more ways than one.

You are required to own a license to drive a vehicle and specific license for more specialized vehicles.
This directly affect who can work and where they can work.
Speed limits also play a strong role in the safety of people, etc...
I'm not sure how you can think otherwise.

I'm sure we both agree people shouldn't drive when drunk as it increase the risk of injuries both to themselves and others.

On the same logic, I think people who are infected by a contagious disease shouldn't be allowed to spread it by doing unnecessary things.
Unfortunately, it's quite hard to determine who is or isn't infected in a large population. it's not like Ebola or Smallpox where the infection is easily visible

I assume people are primarily driven by self interest.
In the case of the government, their self interest (at least in the modern democratic world) is to have a healthy population.
It might sound naive to say the government usually is on our side,
But that's only because its own power is based on the force of its economy.

Sick people are less efficient and as a result, weaken the economy which lowers the overall power of said government.
If a disease is left uncontrolled in a population, then it can wreck havocs.

Obviously, shutting everything down does harm the economy pretty badly, but assuming it is done properly there is a way to restart it.
(Forgiving debts and stuff)

Though, due to the general incompetence of a lot of folks in high position.... well, let's just say the recovery doesn't go as it should have been.
Unfortunately, these folks are in power because they represent the general population

A population of selfish people will create selfish leaders.
Unfortunately, the USA is a good example of that.
I don't like going into politic due to how dividing it can be nowadays (which is a shame)

Keep in mind, I understand your point, but my stance is really just that things are more complicated than they appears to be.
I am quite frustrated as well for similar reasons.

But I rather be careful and take precaution, doing things by moderation. Just using common sense and decency to avoid unnecessary risks.
But a lot of people don't do that and we're paying the price for it.

Your situation as you've described is quite unfortunate I have to say.
I've heard similar things for a lot of people.

Weirdly enough, here it's almost the exact opposite.
The government gave everyone 2000$ a month for the duration of the lockdown and allowed people to stay home on unemployment benefices for over a year.

Now, as the economy tries to go back to normal, a lot of people rather stay unemployed so most places are understaffed.
wages are starting to increase nearly everywhere as a result.

I almost wish it was the case elsewhere too, as it helps increasing the standard of living.
But of course it also means the economy runs in slow motion which isn't great.

I fear you didn't really understand my point.
I was talking about the economy here slowly going back to normal. I know full well it's not the case everywhere.
Fortunately, here, things are slowly getting back to normal.
As said before a lot of companies here are understaffed.

I haven't even came close to insult any politicians outside of making the remark about how the politicians in power represent the population. It's not a perfect representation, but the politicians don't come from a different universe. They're people from said population. So they can't be better than the best said population has to offer.
So if a given population tend to be more self interested, chances are you'll have more self interested leaders
that's really about it.

If we take the USA for example, a large portion of the population do not support various type of social welfare system.
This caused a lot of issues as the Government was not structured around welfare when the lockdown happened leaving many people jobless and without any incomes.

I fully agree the lockdown wasn't a great idea in some context, However we're talking with hindsight now.
I do not know the full extend of most of it too. so I cannot make a proper judgement

All I know is the fact this has been a big mess.

When it comes to politics, I don't know where I stand. to me the "left vs right' doesn't really make much sense.
There's too many different things to consider.

I'd argue I prefer pragmatism over other ideologies.
Is it the best? no, not necessarily, but all I care about is things being done with as little time wasted as possible.

I don't really understand where you get this idea of self-righteousness.
Perhaps I just didn't express myself properly and if that's the case, I wanted to apologise.

If you think so because I didn't show emotion or whatever. then I just want you to know I avoid it in debates because it brings unnecessary stress. it never does me any good to be emotionally attached to an argument because it doesn't help learning the argument of others.
If I'm wrong, I don't want to be blinded by emotion. I want to learn my mistake and change my mind.

I am far from perfect.
but I do try to improve myself.

Also, keep in mind that I sympathise with you.

I don't want to sound antagonistic or anything.
Had this happened 5-10 years ago I would probably have shared your views in the matter.

I don't mean to say "but now I know better" or whatever because it's just insults on injury.
I will fully admit I may be entirely wrong too so it wouldn't make sense to say that..

But in the past 2-3 years I've read quite a lot around the dynamics of powers and things like that.
This has completely changed the way I view the world

especially 2 books
- The dictator's handbook
- The Predictioneer's Game

Both by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita.

CGP Grey made a video a while ago inspired by them. it's called "The rules for rulers"
it's a pretty good summary.
I suggest you look it up : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

The books touches a point I've made earlier.
Essentially how people are driven by self interests.
So everyone plays a large game where they all independently try to manipulate the system to give themselves an advantage.
be it openly protesting in the streets or lobbying government to outright corruption.

By understanding this inherent motivator, people can create incentive for others to follow which further their own self interests.
Aka indirectly manipulating people.

Usually it's done in politics by directing bad attention to other parties so they appear as the better choice even if they're horrible

Neat
I'd be curious to read about that.
If you have any recommendation let me know.
I'm always open to expand my views on things

But yeah, It's getting late, (almost 2am)
I wish you a good night

Too bad i missed the one in Indianapolis, ive heard its much better.

Neato!

Nice x3