| VAMatt said: Education is critically important, so we should get government totally out of it. Then, individual schools, students, and parents can make the decisions that are right for them. With that said, and since we do have government involved, I think schools should be open and parents and students should decide if they want to go the normal way, or a hybrid system. |
The problem of "let everyone decide by themselves" mindset is that you ignore (or just don't care) how much your decisions impact community. It's a straight-up derivative liberal philosophy that emerged with Adam Smith's (pretty outdated even in economics) idea of "what is better for the individual, is better for the group"
When half of population practices social distance and half don't, the half that practices are hurted by the ones who choose not. We will stay in our homes for longer, the disease will spread faster, meaning more costs, more deaths, until health system is saturated enough to make government starts another lockdown
As much China has a severe restriction of their citizens lives, we can see how a deep and mandatory lockdown extinguished the virus in a country of more than 1 billion inhabitants in less than 2 months
Sure we may not be as radical as China, but I'm totally here for some restrictions of individual freedom for the society well being. I don't understand why Americans see the concept of "freedom" as the most absolute, indisputable and non-negotiable value of human dignity. Yes freedom over your own (and the people around you) security and health. Freedom over the possibility to escape this pandemic as soon as possible.
