[Lnc-business] Quarantine

[Marc Allan Feldman]

Philosopher and historian William Durant once said "Nothing is often a
good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say."
When there is something on the horizon, many people very early cry "We
have to do something!"  as if doing something that makes the situation
worse is preferable to waiting for more information to make a wise
decision.
Rahm Emanuel said "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And
what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you'd think you
could not do before."
I suppose I would like a statement like:
"We do not have enough information yet to determine the best policy
decisions.  Everything we know so far is that although there is a
great deal of fear, the actual risk is vanishingly small.  The
important thing to do in this situation is to take reasonable
precautions while gathering information, and resist efforts of those
who would use a crisis to take advantage of the fear to grab power and
infringe on our freedoms in ways they could not do before."

On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 11:17 PM, Joshua Katz <joshua.katz at lp.org> wrote:
> I am struggling as to the libertarian/Libertarian response to this
> issue.  Libertarians have been giving answers all over the map, and
> some have been more permissive of government action on this than, for
> instance, Obama.  Others have given 'absolutely not' answers - but I
> don't know that the right answer is "your right to go to the movies
> trumps us not wanting an epidemic."
>
> Now, I think the panic about Ebola is based largely on
> misunderstandings - some deliberate, some not - of its potential for
> contagion, mode of transmission, and so on.  But that's also no answer
> to the principle question.  What if a disease really was as contagious
> as people think Ebola is?  What would be the answer then?
>
> I'm bringing this up here because it's one of the most stark questions
> about freedom in society at the moment.  I think the LNC should hammer
> out some position, and that this position should guide staff in
> interviews, publications, etc.  I don't know what that position should
> be.
>
> Joshua A. Katz
>
> Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate
> Libertarian National Committee
>
> Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut
>
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-- 
Marc Allan Feldman
CEO
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Beachwood, OH
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