Once, the things that were essential were as obvious as they were hard to come by. Water, food, shelter, heat, clothing, family.
Now, and for a long time,it has taken more than a cave or a few trees, a river, and a garden to provide these things. As we have learned to live with more people in less space, our essential needs have to be provided by others. Food is shipped, water is piped, fuel is distributed, clothes are made elsewhere, and the people we live among may be complete strangers who behave, well, strangely.
With a pandemic going on, many places have shut down all non-essential services.
If you go driving through our towns and cities, you see very few businesses that have actually closed. Those businesses are likely to be privately owned, personally run largely unstaffed family-owned businesses.
Some families last desperate attempt at continued survival in a world where someone else is in charge of supplying the necessities.
All the businesses are essential to someone.
All stores have a niche market for their goods; all food places have a demographic, all shops have a clientele.
But do all the dollar stores need to be open? (Yes, if you want/need inexpensive goods while unemployed or working reduced hours.)
Does every McDonald's need to be open, when sitting on a strip of road that also has Wendy's, Arby's, White Castle, Skyline , and others, all sitting nicely in a row just waiting to feed the hungry? (People still need to eat, and there are many people who cannot or will not cook, for whatever reasons. And why should Wendy's ask McDonalds to be the one that closes, the one that loses during this type of a shutdown? Who chooses, if not the customers?)
Do crafting and hobby shops and hardware stores and home improvement centers need to be open? (Yes, if you need to keep people occupied and busy. Yes if you need home repairs done, if something needs fixed.)
And the truth is, this fierce competition to be needed has in many cases and in many places prevented the price gouging that so often comes with shutdowns.
Lord knows, there are people who went our and created a false demand -- or at least, a false lack of supply -- for specific products.
But, because we do have good supply chains and ingenuity, those people are now stuck with their greedy proceeds and no outlet for them.
And it is the competitive services that are, for the most part, holding prices steady.
There are some businesses that are non-essential except in some circumstances, for some people. Many of these, such as beauty salons have adapted. If you really need to be beautified, you can usually find a place that will make an appointment just for you, or for a select few. And whether the need is physical (perhaps a skin scrub to prevent acne that becomes infected) or mental (sometimes you want to stab that ugly person in the mirror), it is still a need.
But who gets to decide if you're on the brink of collapse or not? Who gets the right to tell you you have to be unkempt another day?
Who should be deciding who can work and who must close, when there are several places offering the same products and services, and equally as important, providing price controls?
It seems that someone should be, yet why should any one body wield that kind of power?
That isn't right.
I don't know the answer, especially in these small world, big city days.
In small towns, in villages and hamlets and crossroads, if there are competitive services, maybe they could take turns. Mondays for McDonald, Wednesday for Wendy's. But they -- the business owners, the chambers of commerce, the 'ruling agencies' -- would need to be scrupulously fair, and that could be difficult in ordinary circumstances. It is certainly an extraordinary chore when face to face meetings and around the table handshakes and smiles, nodding heads, etc are not part of the conflict resolution.
No, I don't know the answer.
I just wish someone(s) did.
Now, and for a long time,it has taken more than a cave or a few trees, a river, and a garden to provide these things. As we have learned to live with more people in less space, our essential needs have to be provided by others. Food is shipped, water is piped, fuel is distributed, clothes are made elsewhere, and the people we live among may be complete strangers who behave, well, strangely.
With a pandemic going on, many places have shut down all non-essential services.
If you go driving through our towns and cities, you see very few businesses that have actually closed. Those businesses are likely to be privately owned, personally run largely unstaffed family-owned businesses.
Some families last desperate attempt at continued survival in a world where someone else is in charge of supplying the necessities.
All the businesses are essential to someone.
All stores have a niche market for their goods; all food places have a demographic, all shops have a clientele.
But do all the dollar stores need to be open? (Yes, if you want/need inexpensive goods while unemployed or working reduced hours.)
Does every McDonald's need to be open, when sitting on a strip of road that also has Wendy's, Arby's, White Castle, Skyline , and others, all sitting nicely in a row just waiting to feed the hungry? (People still need to eat, and there are many people who cannot or will not cook, for whatever reasons. And why should Wendy's ask McDonalds to be the one that closes, the one that loses during this type of a shutdown? Who chooses, if not the customers?)
Do crafting and hobby shops and hardware stores and home improvement centers need to be open? (Yes, if you need to keep people occupied and busy. Yes if you need home repairs done, if something needs fixed.)
And the truth is, this fierce competition to be needed has in many cases and in many places prevented the price gouging that so often comes with shutdowns.
Lord knows, there are people who went our and created a false demand -- or at least, a false lack of supply -- for specific products.
But, because we do have good supply chains and ingenuity, those people are now stuck with their greedy proceeds and no outlet for them.
And it is the competitive services that are, for the most part, holding prices steady.
There are some businesses that are non-essential except in some circumstances, for some people. Many of these, such as beauty salons have adapted. If you really need to be beautified, you can usually find a place that will make an appointment just for you, or for a select few. And whether the need is physical (perhaps a skin scrub to prevent acne that becomes infected) or mental (sometimes you want to stab that ugly person in the mirror), it is still a need.
But who gets to decide if you're on the brink of collapse or not? Who gets the right to tell you you have to be unkempt another day?
Who should be deciding who can work and who must close, when there are several places offering the same products and services, and equally as important, providing price controls?
It seems that someone should be, yet why should any one body wield that kind of power?
That isn't right.
I don't know the answer, especially in these small world, big city days.
In small towns, in villages and hamlets and crossroads, if there are competitive services, maybe they could take turns. Mondays for McDonald, Wednesday for Wendy's. But they -- the business owners, the chambers of commerce, the 'ruling agencies' -- would need to be scrupulously fair, and that could be difficult in ordinary circumstances. It is certainly an extraordinary chore when face to face meetings and around the table handshakes and smiles, nodding heads, etc are not part of the conflict resolution.
No, I don't know the answer.
I just wish someone(s) did.
