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0 pointsvkou5y ago0 comments

> That becomes an exercise in defining essential services. I'd be interested in seeing the web of dependency for the absolute basics like food, and what other seemingly non-essential services are required in the production and distribution of food.

There aren't any. If you grow food, you're essential. If you ship food, you're essential. If you fix the trucks that ship food, you're essential. If you fix the air conditioner in the auto shop that fixes the trucks that ship food, you're essential. If you make screws for the air conditioner that gets installed in that auto shop, you're essential.

Read the shutdown orders. They enumerate essential industries, and the list of them is incredibly broad. In Washington state (Which has one of first, and furthest reaching shutdown orders), if you make literally anything that the military uses... You're essential. The list is incredibly broad.

These disruptions are caused directly by the virus getting people sick, and taking them out of work (And their workplaces, until people can get tested, and their workspace can be sanitized) - not the shutdown.

The shutdown actually serves to keep these facilities open, because it has reduced the virus's spread through the population.

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BLKNSLVR5y ago

That's exactly why I'd like to see some kind of dependency web. I was going to mention additional things such as the utilities: power, gas, water, but food made the point well enough, and you've demonstrated the reach of one of its tentacles very well.

> The shutdown actually serves to keep these facilities open, because it has reduced the virus's spread through the population

Yes, in total agreement. I'm in favour of the shutdowns because I can see far enough ahead to know how much worse things would be if they didn't happen. Those who bemoan the damage to the economy strike me as either incredibly short-sighted or selfish or both. Admittedly, however, I'm coming from the lucky and mightily privileged position of not having lost my job (at this point), although I do have "that Damocles feeling" fairly constantly.