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Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

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211–220 of 1001 posts

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#211
There is a crossfit gym that I pass by every morning on the way to work. It is full, and never stopped during this pandemic. Even at 7AM, it is full of patrons.

I would call the "proper authorities", but since there is a State Police car parked outside every morning, and he is in there working out, just like before the pandemic, I doubt calling anyone would do anything.

Adding to the post, I read it earlier... it is really strange that people feel they have to go work out in groups. Or get together, or go to bars. I find it amazing we can not see short term sacrifice for long term gain.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#212
post #170

Did the "shutdown normal gym" mean that patrons would be violating whatever policies forced the gym to shutdown in the first place? If so, that really bothers me. Any excess contagion would endanger everyone, not just the gym users. Please consider reporting the details to the appropriate authorities. EDIT: If someone is inclined to downvote this comment, I'd be very grateful for a clarification why (comment or DM).…

Reporting to the authorities in the US means calling the police. Don’t call the police in America. Furthermore, virus or no virus, the right to peacefully assemble is a human right that cannot legally or morally be abridged. I don’t want the police to shut down protests. I also don’t want them to shut down gyms, or voting, or churches, or any other peaceful reason (dumb) people wish to assemble. Assembly in the middl…

Spreading virus is an act of violence. Intentionally spreading disease is in the law books as a violent crime. Is the casualty rate of police encounters higer than the casualty rate of COVID-19 encounters?

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#213

It's not just gyms. It's underground bars, hair salons, hot stone yoga joints, and all kinds of things. While the hair salons were closed, my wife's hairdresser was texting her every three days to get her into her underground makeshift totally illegal hair place. And slightly realated, quarantines don't work when people aren't actually quarantined. There was an article in the newspaper last week or the week before ab…

"Totally illegal underground makeshift hair place"

I'm confused, if the participants wear a mask, will the virus be transmitted or not?

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#215
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just dismiss the fitness routines people have spent years choosing and refining and getting better at. That's incredibly arrogant. More arrogant than putting other lives at risk because you can't put your routine on hold, or alter it for a bit? No. It isn't. "Lift a heavy stone"? That's a joke, right? No, and it's part of strongman competitions. It's not dangerous if you have the right form and don't overdo…

"More arrogant than putting other lives at risk because you can't put your routine on hold for a bit? No. It isn't." This is the part I'm confused about. If gyms were open, people who's lives were at risk still wouldn't go to the gym. Only people who didn't care would go. They are consenting to the risk that would inherently come with it. It isn't the type of place that at risk people HAVE to go, so why shouldn't we…

>I think quarantine should be down to the individual and the rules they'd like to implement on their private property

Too bad most people leave their private property and interact with people in public spaces where their personal rules are moot.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do essential workers all have to be valued on an equal basis as firefighters, doctors, etc? Because that's what the word "essential" means: Things you can't do without. Not "things I really really really like." How are you measuring value? People who save lives > people who don't save lives.

That's a reasonable definition of "essential", but at least in the US the term isn't used this way. Takeout restaurants, Starbucks, etc. have always remained open as "essential businesses".

in the US the term isn't used this way. Takeout restaurants, Starbucks, etc. have always remained open as "essential businesses".

Not where I live. All restaurants were shut down, even for take-out. They were only allowed to offer take-out food when restrictions started being lifted.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#218

There is a crossfit gym that I pass by every morning on the way to work. It is full, and never stopped during this pandemic. Even at 7AM, it is full of patrons. I would call the "proper authorities", but since there is a State Police car parked outside every morning, and he is in there working out, just like before the pandemic, I doubt calling anyone would do anything. Adding to the post, I read it earlier... it is…

That's because the landlord still expects rent to be due.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#219
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

totally agree. Stop living life because there's a chance of dying.

How did "do three things to prevent mass death" (distance, mask, wash hands) become "we're all going to die anyways so i'll keep doing whatever I want thank you." Is America really that filled with narcissists?

It's called "rugged invidualism" here, not narcissism, thank you very much. And the answer is yes.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#220

Did the "shutdown normal gym" mean that patrons would be violating whatever policies forced the gym to shutdown in the first place? If so, that really bothers me. Any excess contagion would endanger everyone, not just the gym users. Please consider reporting the details to the appropriate authorities. EDIT: If someone is inclined to downvote this comment, I'd be very grateful for a clarification why (comment or DM).…

And what if the polices were wrong? I have looked at the data and came to the conclusion that the danger from covid is tiny (to see how low - check qatar - probably the country with most extensive testing) and preventing is totally not worth it the sacrifices and damage to society. Qatar has 44000 cases per 1m pop and 69 deaths per 1m. That is not much higher than flu.

In the US, there's been 172k death in half a year for Covid. And if using the worst case data for flu season, it's 61k per year. So it's looking like for a full year, it'll be 344k death for Covid versus 61k death for the flu.

That makes Covid 5.6 times more deadly than the flu.

But, the Covid numbers here are from a complete lockdown, where people are social distancing, wearing masks, schools are closed, everyone is working from home if possible, etc. And even with those level of precautions, it is at best 5.6 times deadlier.

That's why the estimate from the CDC is that Covid is 10 times deadlier than the flu.

The other thing is, this only measures immediate death. But there are unknown long term risk. Other type of SARS virus are known to cause long term issues to people that recovered from it. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be the case for Covid but it could, and we don't know yet.

The last problem is mutations are possible. There's already one known mutation that makes it even more contagious. And the more the virus spreads, the more likely it mutates as well. So containment is important for that as well.

Now, that's the risk of it from the data today. You can decide that it is a risk worth taking or not. That's kind of a personal thing. But it is absolutely much higher than the flu.

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