08-31-2021, 02:31 AM
The flaw in their reasoning is that free markets are good at solving many problems, but not the ones where costs are externalized in the pursuit of profits. Think of the company that can sell cheaper products by secretly dumping their pollution into the ocean. By the time consumers know it will be too late to undo the damage done. Or the drug dealer selling meth. Their customers vote with their dollars, they make money, and everyone else has to deal with meth head crime. Sometimes the incentive of profit and the costs to society are too great. That's when government steps in for the greater good.
The unvaccinated are creating the externalized harm to society by clogging hospitals and spreading Covid at a higher rate and for a longer duration. Asking businesses to solve the problem is not fair, particularly to small businesses that need the income. The government temporarily imposing restrictions on the willfully unvaccinated to prevent hospitals from being overrun is a reasonable solution. Requiring school children to be vaccinated to attend school (as they already are for many other diseases) is a reasonable solution.
The unvaccinated are creating the externalized harm to society by clogging hospitals and spreading Covid at a higher rate and for a longer duration. Asking businesses to solve the problem is not fair, particularly to small businesses that need the income. The government temporarily imposing restrictions on the willfully unvaccinated to prevent hospitals from being overrun is a reasonable solution. Requiring school children to be vaccinated to attend school (as they already are for many other diseases) is a reasonable solution.