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> Right now, the government has a simple story: essential businesses stay open, and everything else stays closed. It's quick to express and easily understandabl

> Right now, the government has a simple story: essential businesses stay open, and everything else stays closed. It's quick to express and easily understandable. That ship sailed a while ago. Home Depot is open and packed to the gills (literally people lining up to get in the front door at my neighborhood Home Depot which is about 20 minutes from the Tesla factory). Most of the people shopping there aren't doing anything essential -- their home improvement projects and gardens can wait. Similarly, marijuana dispensaries are still open in California. They aren't really essential: unlike in the case of alcohol, withdrawal from marijuana is not dangerous and smokers could go without it. Yet dispensaries are "essential". On the other hand, car parades and just "going for a drive" are officially discouraged even though there is no chance of contact with strangers when you are inside your car. At this point, to say that those businesses are essential, and yet a car factory is not, is plainly ridiculous. What kind of rational decision-making process results in marijuana dispensaries being more essential than car factories? The government can't get out of this by claiming it can't pick and choose, because it has already been picking and choosing for a while. It has given the green light to more questionable cases than the Tesla factory.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
I think marijuana dispensaries are a weak example. There probably is a fair number of people who actually need their medical marijuana.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
camel_gopher 6y ago
They are essential because people stay home and some up.
watwut 6y ago
> Home Depot is open and packed to the gills (literally people lining up to get in the front door at my neighborhood Home Depot which is about 20 minutes from the Tesla factory). Most of the people shopping there aren't doing anything essential -- their home improvement projects and gardens can wait Shops where I live mandate masks and either gloves or hand sanitizer. Also, people have to wait two meters from each other and only limited amount of people can be in at the same time. It seemed reasonable to me to allow shops like Home Depot if the above restrictions are hold. You are more likely to get Covid by prolonged contact then by brief one. And if they expect people to stay at home, it makes sense to allow them to do something with that time so they dont go crazy. Gardening and home restriction are reasonable, smart activities for lockdown.
arrrg 6y ago
Home Depot is open because you need it to be open, say for essential repairs (broken water pipe or what have you). I think something like Home Depot is actually pretty high up on the list of essential things. That people go there for non-essential reasons – sure. I think it’s a sound policy decision to say that you do not investigate the reasons why people go shopping. That would create complicated overhead and be hard to enforce.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Also some essential/nonessential reasons depend on your risk sensitivity. People start gardens for reasons ranging from mental comfort to hedging against raising food prices in the coming months due to how thoroughly shot the agriculture is now.
eirini1 6y ago
marijuana is an important, life-saving medicine for a lot of people. Being able to visit a hardware store is important because some home repairs simply cannot wait. A car factory on the other hand has literally no reason to be open right now, the car industry is literally crashing right now because there is so little demand for cars.
take_a_breath 6y ago
In Illinois the marijuana dispensaries provide medical marijuana to patients. Seems like a good reason to stay open. Home Depot has all sorts of essential products from water heaters to screws to air filters to cleaning supplies and plenty more. A Tesla factory doesn’t offer prescribed medicine or household items I may need while staying-at-home.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago

I think marijuana dispensaries are a weak example. There probably is a fair number of people who actually need their medical marijuana.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

camel_gopher 6y ago

They are essential because people stay home and some up.

watwut 6y ago

> Home Depot is open and packed to the gills (literally people lining up to get in the front door at my neighborhood Home Depot which is about 20 minutes from the Tesla factory). Most of the people shopping there aren't doing anything essential -- their home improvement projects and gardens can wait Shops where I live mandate masks and either gloves or hand sanitizer. Also, people have to wait two meters from each other and only limited amount of people can be in at the same time. It seemed reasonable to me to allow shops like Home Depot if the above restrictions are hold. You are more likely to get Covid by prolonged contact then by brief one. And if they expect people to stay at home, it makes sense to allow them to do something with that time so they dont go crazy. Gardening and home restriction are reasonable, smart activities for lockdown.

arrrg 6y ago

Home Depot is open because you need it to be open, say for essential repairs (broken water pipe or what have you). I think something like Home Depot is actually pretty high up on the list of essential things. That people go there for non-essential reasons – sure. I think it’s a sound policy decision to say that you do not investigate the reasons why people go shopping. That would create complicated overhead and be hard to enforce.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Also some essential/nonessential reasons depend on your risk sensitivity. People start gardens for reasons ranging from mental comfort to hedging against raising food prices in the coming months due to how thoroughly shot the agriculture is now.

eirini1 6y ago

marijuana is an important, life-saving medicine for a lot of people. Being able to visit a hardware store is important because some home repairs simply cannot wait. A car factory on the other hand has literally no reason to be open right now, the car industry is literally crashing right now because there is so little demand for cars.

take_a_breath 6y ago

In Illinois the marijuana dispensaries provide medical marijuana to patients. Seems like a good reason to stay open. Home Depot has all sorts of essential products from water heaters to screws to air filters to cleaning supplies and plenty more. A Tesla factory doesn’t offer prescribed medicine or household items I may need while staying-at-home.