Oddbean new post about | logout
 Here’s the thing on covid-19 restrictions,

Some people are allergic to Peanuts.  If you take out a peanut sandwich, you might kill someone.

The vast majority of people are deadly allergic to Anthrax.  If you open an Anthrax container, you might kill someone.

Well our society accepts that so few people are allergic to peanuts compared to the overall population, that it’s tough luck for the allergic ones.  We say, “you are such a small minority, we will not inconvenience the entire population, like we would Anthrax”.  This is called cost benefit analysis.

Now is covid-19 anthrax? No.  Is covid-19 peanuts? No.  Where is covid in-between on this scale?

Well, I don’t get to decide.  And the government shouldn’t either.  Because no small elite group can weigh the cost—benefit for all of humanity.  Instead, I propose that individual participants and land-owners at a local level decide what the peanuts and anthrax of their own lives are.  Only they can weigh the benefits vs the cost.

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 I see your point, but peanut sandwiches didn't kill millions of people last year afaik