As Britishland begins to emerge ever so slowly from its Chinkvirus lockdown foolishness, businesses are being allowed to open, one sector at a time. Which leads to squeals like this:
Gym boss spending £20,000 a month furloughing staff slams Boris Johnson for reopening pub beer gardens before fitness centres as she asks ‘why isn’t health a priority?’
Here’s my problem with arguments like this. Instead of arguing the unfairness of pubs opening before gyms and wanting gyms to be given preference, she should be asking why gyms and pubs shouldn’t open at the same time.
And it’s all about the definition of “health”, isn’t it? I for one resent the assholes who think that we should all be physically healthier — whereas there’s an equally- or even more-important “social” health, that of companionship and shared good times that would be improved by the opening of pubs.
Moreover, just from a pure numbers perspective, I bet that there are untold millions of people all over Britain lining up to go to their favorite pub — or any pub, for that matter — whereas there are only a few thousand (largely) urbanites waiting to go and hit the treadmills. If there’s a utilitarian argument (which seems to be what the unkempt Boris Johnson is following), it’s that opening pubs will give pleasure to the greatest number of people — and that if there’s a priority, it should be to the general public rather than a relatively-small number of smug and self-satisfied health-obsessed scolds.
Here are the two arguments: “Go to the pub and have a good time” vs. “Go to the gym because you should be fitter (unspoken: you overweight slob).”
No prizes for guessing which argument will (and should) win, every time.
My question would be, “Who the fuck are you to tell me when I can and cannot open my business?”
The big government power grab in the past year has been something to behold. Life will never be the same.
Raven,
Your first question is spot on. The economy should be opened up and people back to work. If you dont like it, then you can choose to stay home.
The problem is the attitude of “you can’t fight city hall.” Unfortunately, it is very costly to sue the local, state or federal government because if they “need” additional resources to fight you, they increase your taxes. Its very expensive for individuals to sue the government. I was hoping that various small business associations and larger firms would have sued the government. Then of course you have the problem that state and federal government required that yuo sue in the courts that they run.
JQ
Life can return to something approximating “the same”, but it will require a long period where defective gene holders are filtered out of the pool.