It's a tough balancing act. The ideal government would be a benevolent dictatorship with an all knowing, all caring dictator who would always do the "right" thing. Unfortunately, such a human being doesn't currently exist on the planet, so we go for a republic, which though far worse than the above is the next best thing compared to Communism, Socialism, Theocracy, and Anarchy (at least in my opinion!)
"My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins" (Google search suggests nobody really knows for sure who came up with this.) It applies well here.
In current situation, Americans practicing their freedom to open and run their businesses put other Americans at risk of DYING.
In this situation, it is absolutely the responsibility of the government to step in and make a call. There are some that advocated, "Do nothing, let the virus run it's course, 80% are going to survive, 17% (or so) are going to need hospitalization which will probably get overwhelmed, so most of them are going to die, and 1-3% if they get it are gonna die no matter what if they get it. Since 80% constitutes a majority, why mess up the economy for the 20% minority." I think the Netherlands actually considered this option, then rejected it.
You don't like this call, you have the opportunity at the next election to change the "callers". Write your local officials and congressman and senator and the President and tell them how you feel.
You make some good points on this forum, it just happens that, for whatever reason, many of us are willing to suffer economic hardship to protect that 20%. We talk about living in a free country, freedom is relative. Great example related to this forum is L1 through L3 certification rules. Many if not most people probably could manage to get the proper learnin' to do it right, but there are always those idjits that manage to hurt themselves, or others, or destroy private property when rules aren't in place, so we have laws about High Powered Rocket flight that are pretty restrictive and frequently a PITB. But I'm glad they are there.
Please feel free to complain and vent your disagreement. But also look for ways to cope with the current rules and help out those who are indeed getting hurt by the current economic crisis which is indeed "imposed" by the government.
