1\ I just experienced a government clusterfuck so stupefying that, if I hadn't already watched the world shut down despite hospitals being empty, I wouldn't believe it was possible...
So, I need a PCR test for an upcoming int'l flight...
2\ Test can't be more than 72hrs old, but because our city is testing all school children multiple times a week, commercial labs can no longer do 72hr turnarounds
The lab tech helpfully suggested I check the airport
Turns out, the airport offers 48hr turnarounds on tests!
3\ Great! I even checked the airport website. It specifically advertises that tests are available for people who need them before they can depart
Perfect! Jumped in an Uber and off I went
4\4 At the airport:
PCR testing center is after security. TSA won't let you through without a boarding pass. Can't get the boarding pass without a PCR test
And, get this, NOBODY at the airport had ever considered this Catch 22. Nobody.
Can't wait for nationalized healthcare!
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@rocket_jenross@Benshooter@wolfejosh 1\ Even if you deny the existence of objective morality or a creator, pragmatism still demands a delineation of rights that leads to the best outcomes in the world we inhabit
A libertarian, "negative rights" approach argues that sovereignty of one's body and property is best...
@rocket_jenross@Benshooter@wolfejosh 2\ Locke got there a bit mystically, Rothbard a bit speciously, Hayek and Friedman (Jr.) with arguments about how benefits and costs must be vested in the individual to allow economically efficient outcomes
@rocket_jenross@Benshooter@wolfejosh 3\ For me it comes down to the practical consideration that positive rights are incompatible with negative rights, so if you want to avoid the coercion that so often leads to tyranny, you have to pare rights down to a minimal set
1\ Ok, I have to do a thread on vaccine distribution, because it is just so insane
As everyone knows by now, governments around the world are paralyzed by vaccine logistics
Who should get it? In what order?
Does age trump race? Does profession trump health?
2\ What is enabling this political paralysis is the illusion, universally held by Very Decent People, that if we don't distribute in accordance with Equity (undefined bullshit word), then various needy people will be Priced Out, and Inequality Will Increase!
3\ Now, let's take a giant step back
This vaccine costs somewhere between $3 & $40 per dose
NOBODY in the US for whom COVID is an existential thread cannot afford this
The average welfare recipient's cable bill is 2x the cost of this vaccine
1\ Rumors of overwhelmed hospitals have become so lurid in South Africa that a chain of urgent care centers had to put out a press release denying the rumors