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Comment by thoughtsimple | Hacker News Reader

I lost a lot of respect for popehat after reading that. How do you measure the cost of people's lives? The shelter in place request was just that, a request. It was to help law enforcement do their jobs. It clearly worked.

He makes reference to the DC snipers but fails to mention the cost of having those terrorists free for weeks. In Boston both men were caught in a matter of days with no more civilians hurt. I'll take Boston's solution over that of DC's. He also doesn't seem to take into account the very large number of non-fatal injuries sustained. And the potential for even more given the use of explosives. Trying to minimize the risk by discounting the injuries and only considering fatalities is pretty shallow analysis.

Also making light of the police and donuts does not improve my opinion of his stance.

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Indeed. Our governor recommended that people stay in their homes, and that businesses shut down. In exactly the way that he earlier in the year he recommended that they do so in a big snowstorm, both for safety and so that the streets could be effectively cleared. Indeed, in the snowstorm case was more restrictive, as one could have been theoretically fined for driving (although it was made clear that this wasn't something which there was any intent to pursue).

People by and large accommodated yesterdays request because it seemed reasonable. Also it gave them a chance to stay home with their loved ones and follow the news. Finally, I'd observe that terrorists who throw bombs and fire weapons in the street are scary. In any event, there were some people on the streets yesterday, just not many.

If someone actually feels that their rights were actually abridged, for example if they were arrested for assembling outside, they have recourse to the courts, and I'd be happy to consider donating to their legal fund. And, of course, should someone feel that this was mishandled as a case of public policy, they are welcome to run on that platform and make that case.

You have to be willing to measure the cost of lives. No one likes doing it, but there's always opportunities to spend a lot of money to save a few lives, and a limited amount of money. If you don't make tradeoffs intelligently and deliberately, you wind up trading many lives for few lives.

Sure, but that goes both ways. What's the monetary value of the peace of mind of people throughout the Boston area? There's plenty that doesn't show up in GDP that still has real value.

Popehat is a group blog, FYI. Members don't get veto powers over other people's blogs, and often you can find other members of the group disagreeing in comments.

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