Choosing between hell and hades

[otseng]

For a very long time, most of the choices we've had to make are between what's good and what's better. Should I get an iPhone 11 or a Samsung Galaxy S20? Should I get a Chick-fil-A sandwich or a Popeye's chicken sandwich? Should I get Netflix or Disney Plus? We have all been living the life of ease and comfort and don't know what it means to make truly hard choices. But it has all now changed.

We are now entering a period where the choices are between what's bad or what's worse. Politicians are asking, "Should we quarantine everybody and prevent the deaths of millions of people or should we let the economy crash?" Health officials are asking, "Should we tell people to wear masks and risk a panic since there are no masks or should we not say anything and risk more people contracting coronavirus?" The Fed is asking, "Should we flood the economy with massive amounts of cash and risk hyperinflation or should there be a systemic financial collapse?" Companies are asking, "Should we burn through cash or not pay rent and lay people off?" Amazon workers are asking, "Should I go to work and risk getting covid-19 or should I stay home and not get paid?" Triage nurses are asking, "Who gets to have treatment and who has to go home?" Doctors are asking, "Between these two people, who should get the ventilator?" Navy Captain Crozier asked, "Should I disobey orders and give up my military career or should I save the lives of the crew from a coronavirus outbreak?" Migrant workers are asking, "Should I obey the government and stay at home or should I go work so I can feed my family?" Work at home employees are asking, "How are we able to take care of the kids at home and also work?" Laid off people are asking, "Should I go to the food bank that has 100 people waiting in line or the food bank that has 120 people waiting in line?"

Before, there was really no bad choice we can make, every choice was relatively easy and it didn't really matter which one we chose. Now, there will be no good choice that we can make, every choice will be a difficult one.

Judging by how long we've lived the life of easy choices, it's not likely the period of having to make hard choices will be short.

[Purple Knight]

I've never had it particularly easy because I supported a good deal of my household with tutoring income when I was nine. I had a choice between letting my mum continue to drink and having the excess for food, or refuse to tutor and starve.

By the time I learned that there were safety nets, I was being told that they were redistribution, and that redistribution is wrong. Those programmes are there for people who need them, not you.

So I have always ignored them. I will be refusing President Trump's socialist redistribution money, and if I lose my house, then I lose my house.

Libertarians say that the bailouts to the businesses are justified, because the government forced them closed, and they have a right to be open, since that is their property. Individual workers, however, never had any right to their jobs, so they should not get any of the stimulus.

I hate capitalism because I'm the only one actually living in it. It's that world where every choice is horrible; every choice is between bad and worse.

In a way we need that, but the going rate has always been for people to realise that need, and make sure others bear all of the bad choices while they get the easy ones between good and better. In a complex society, sadly, it works. Just bail out the banks and airlines, claim it's for the employees, and direct all that hatred toward the workers. If not for you, you socialist pigs who dare want to stay alive, we would have a perfect capitalist system and the free market would actually work.

I don't care what kind of a system we have as long as everybody gets a little bit of that necessary bad, but instead, we redistribute and defer it, making it perpetually worse when we can't defer it any longer.

Ironically if we'd just let everyone starve in a new depression in 2008, the population wouldn't be dense enough to facilitate the spread of a pandemic in America now.

Every system is a tradeoff, the good and the bad. No one is supposed to be 100% safe. Yet we make that a necessity, even in a system whose backbone is that the weakest must fail. Every time someone fails, we simply make an exception.

We've ended up with the natural result of no failure: Everyone risks the maximum at all times, because they can only win.

[Divine Insight]

Before, there was really no bad choice we can make, every choice was relatively easy and it didn't really matter which one we chose.

I don't accept your above premise. I think all choices in life are potentially hard especially when we can never know the outcome of any given choice.

The choices we have now may be more "difficult" simply because we need to change the way we were used to behaving. But I wouldn't say that this leaves us with having to make bad choices.

I've had to fight off the urge to run out to stores to pick up things I'd really like to have. Like food and even garden seeds so I can grow my own food.

I've chosen to do my part and stay home. I wouldn't even say that it was a hard choice. Just not the choice I would have made in normal times.

I'm going to eat the foods I already have at home, even if they aren't all that great. I'm going to try to order garden seeds online and hope I get them in time for an early planting.

I'm also going to order food online. I'll have to order powered milk because they won't ship fresh milk.

Hard choices? Perhaps. But there's really no reason for me to be making "bad" choices.

But there are people who are indeed making "bad" choices. For example, the little country grocery store near me is open for business. It's also quite busy. Far more so than normally. Yet, neither the workers there, nor the people coming into the store are wearing masks, or other means of preventing the spreading of the virus.

That's a very "bad" choice on their behalf. A choice they don't even need to make. They could be wearing masks and doing their part to try to curb the spread of the virus. But instead they are creating a "Hot Spot" that will most likely end up causing our entire community to become infected.

Very "bad" choice indeed. And one that never should have been made by anyone.

In fact, this grocery store is so small physically if I was the owner I wouldn't allow anyone to even come inside the store. Instead I would set up some windows and have the customers just order what they want like they would at a Dairy Queen.

Now that would be a SMART CHOICE. But they haven't made that choice. Instead they chose to just freely spread the virus between them and their customers all day long. I'm very sad to have learned this. They're good people but they're doing it all wrong. They've made the 'bad' choice. Apparently without even realizing it.

It's truly sad.

[Purple Knight]

The choices we have now may be more "difficult" simply because we need to change the way we were used to behaving. But I wouldn't say that this leaves us with having to make bad choices.

Well, you at least have to give something up, like your seeds.

I don't have a choice; I have to be out of the house for my job.

If I don't do my job, I will lose my house.

[otseng]

I've never had it particularly easy because I supported a good deal of my household with tutoring income when I was nine.

What do you tutor?

Libertarians say that the bailouts to the businesses are justified

I don't think libertarians believe they are justified. Rather, socialism now rules the day.

I hate capitalism because I'm the only one actually living in it.

I don't think the root problem is capitalism, but corruption and cronyism. Who is benefitting from the CARES Act? Not the people, but the financial elite who will continue to try to siphon the wealth from everyone else.

[otseng]

I've had to fight off the urge to run out to stores to pick up things I'd really like to have. Like food and even garden seeds so I can grow my own food.

We've been ramping up on our garden. I've heard rumors seeds are starting to be banned, so I'll be making a run for more seeds soon.

I've chosen to do my part and stay home.

We've tried to avoid any social contact with others. And when I do go out, I wear my N95 mask and use hand sanitizer every time I get back into the car.

But there are people who are indeed making "bad" choices.

Even big box stores here aren't wearing masks. Employees at Costco, Publix and Walmart do not wear masks. Though I expect some might start to wear cloth masks this week.

[otseng]

I don't have a choice; I have to be out of the house for my job.

Many will be out of a job soon too at the rate of current unemployment numbers. I don't think anyone would be immune from being out of work. So, to prepare for that, I've been thinking about starting a business to allow tutors and students to connect one-on-one online.

[Purple Knight]

What do you tutor?

Everything except computer science and English. I only stay away from English because some professors get sooooo pissy about paper writing that it's impossible to instruct someone well enough to guarantee an A.

I haven't done it in a while and I'm used to being face-to-face, but if someone needs help I'll provide it for free.

Also, I'm not well-versed on Common Core. From what I've seen it's a bunch of nonsense that doesn't even care if you get the right answer, if you get it the wrong way. I'd have to study to teach to that... but I would.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 7 by otseng]

Its more a choice between a rock and a hard placd... we are entering the last days of the last days. Life will be hard but the new world is in sight. As we Witnesses say "The kingdom is in place, let it come!"


JW