04-25-2021, 10:41 PM
mrbigstuff wrote:
[quote=PeterB]
[quote=mrbigstuff]
[quote=PeterB]
[quote=Speedy]
Idiots are everywhere. Maybe this will thin the herd.
Sadly, the problem is that the idiots don't just affect themselves. When they get sick and die, they use up resources that the rest of us need -- hospital beds, medications, etc. -- in essence, we're paying (literally and figuratively) for their selfish, idiotic choices.
Careful with that line of thinking; it can be applied to many human lifestyle choices.
There's a difference between a lifestyle choice and something that's being done to protect public health in the face of a pandemic. Really in the latter case, it should not be a choice at all ... calling it a lifestyle choice is disingenuous. If you really want to go in that direction, the slippery slope argument says that all vaccinations are lifestyle choices, and we shouldn't mandate any of them... then we'll see what happens.
So, smoking is not in the same category?
Smoking IS in the same category. It has massive costs, both in financial terms as well as human suffering. And yes, we do allow people to smoke, but we also strongly push people not to -- since it's a serious public health problem. I do agree that it is a tricky thing, because most people don't want to be told what to do. But if they smoke, that may limit or prevent them from entering places of business, holding down certain jobs, etc. Also, the vaccine and smoking situations aren't quite comparable, because one is dealing with something to save lives, the other is dealing with something that causes death-- and furthermore is strongly addictive.