I’ll make no bones about it. I think the categorizations of “essential” workers are overly broad and in fact arbitrary, far beyond the bounds of absurdity and certainly enough to call into question the very notion of a state-mandated lockdown. Here’s a little evidence for my view in the form of a piece at United Way. The state with the lowest percentage of “essential” workers (Arizona) deems 39.3% essential; the state with the highest (North Dakota) 57.9%. But wait folks that’s not all. In Washington, DC 74.9% are “essential”. That is arrant nonsense. How in the world do you have a meaningful lockdown in which three-quarters of the workers continue to work?
Unemployment for thee, but not for me.
In defense of DC; it probably has an unusual concentration of positions that are non life critical but still essential.
For example, no one will die if the courts are suspended for a few days; but any longer then that and we are abridging everyone rights to justice through the courts.
Or the Pentagon; my guess is except for people involved in controlling nuclear missiles; no one is life-critical; but almost everyone is essential to keep the military and national defense functional.
You could make the same case for the CIA, Treasury, Congress, the Federal Reserve, State, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, EPA…
You could make the same case for every job in the United States.
“You could make the same case for every job in the United States.”
There are lots of jobs that exist because we are an affluent society that we don’t really “need”. Tanning salons? The problem is that these are judgment calls and no one wants to be in the non-essential group. Plus, there are always political factors involved and special interests at work.
Steve
My point here is that the determination of which jobs are essential is inherently political. Heck, the very notion that some jobs are essential is itself a political judgment.
Defining all jobs in whole sectors as essential is sloppy, lazy policymaking. Additionally, as I pointed out early on just because a business performs an essential service does not mean that all of the services it performs are essential.