Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

I think this situation is a bit unique. With most activities, the person participating in the activity assumes most of the risk. With COVID, doing anything beyond the bare essentials (grocery, doctor, pharmacy, et. al) puts everyone else at risk far more so than normal. I acknowledge there is a discussion that should take place on freedoms vs containing a pandemic. As a nation, our leaders need to have this discussion, and have a better plan in place for the next pandemic.

Jeff said:

And the slippery slope things about liberty drive me nuts. Remember the good old days, when there were slaves and women couldn't vote and some people had to sit on the back of the bus? That was pretty great freedom, right?

But hey, on the plus side I got my first queue of the year, complete with switchbacks and everything. Granted it was a 45 minute wait to spend $350 at Costco but it brought me back!

Were the sample ladies out? Might be worth it for that.

No sample ladies and no tables in the food court.

All the sample ladies,
All the sample ladies.
If you liked it, you should know that there's a sale on it
If you liked it, you should know that there's a sale on it
Whoa oh oh.

PointMan said:

Stop with the strawman arguments.

I'm not making a strawman argument, I'm pointing out that the slippery slope arguments are nonsense. As history has progressed, we've continued to have more freedom, not less. All of these predictions that we're suddenly going to go the other way are unfounded.

It’s not a prediction that we’re completely reversing course though.

To say that rights can’t or won’t be taken away, and to be fair, you’re coming at that as a privileged white man who’s financially stable, is at best ignorance.

Just because you’re not affected doesn’t mean some people don’t have some of their rights taken away, even when you can’t see it.

Are you ****ing kidding me? You don't know me or how I'm affected, but it's reasonable to say there isn't a single human on the planet that's not.

No I’m not. If you think that rights and liberties can’t, haven't, or won’t be taken away, simply because so major advancements forward have happened, then it’s because you’re too privileged to notice it. Period.

I didn’t say you weren’t affected. We all are. I’m saying that your examples of progress do not guarantee that rights can’t back slide.

But I see it triggers you as usual instead of making you take a second to say “maybe someone else’s experiences aren’t like mine.”

At no point did I say that.

Check your judgment, yo. You don't get karma points for trying to out-woke anyone.

About that "it was already here" theory...

https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-circulating-califo...-bunk.html

Until next week when a new study or information comes forward with information that it was here earlier than we thought (or not). Nobody knows for sure yet, and that's the entire point. Nobody should be so sure of anything until we have the entire puzzle.

Forget 2021 Capex, Six Flags is already yanking 2020 projects that weren't far along

SFDK has removed the new for 2020 spinning coaster from their website and park map, looks like they've substituted last year's park map, where the 2020 map had been previously.

What other attractions weren't far along in construction, and thus could be easily pulled, in order to save cash?

Jeff said:

About that "it was already here" theory...

https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-circulating-califo...-bunk.html

Good find. Thanks.

The science may be exact. But we clearly don't know a lot of the science yet. That's why it's hard to know for sure if we'll be riding Magnum at the end of June or still sheltering in place on Labor Day.

I really think this article is worth reading and reflecting about. Hope it links correctly.

https://medium.com/@juliovincent/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighti...8ce3f0a0e0

In reading that article it made me reflect on a few previous thoughts. Each and every day we get up, get dressed, drive to work, work, and drive home. This eats up the majority of our lives. We work for what exactly? To pay for the car to go to work, to pay for the house we barely live in because we spend our time at work. We spend money on school so we can be better equipped for work. Most of our activities are work centric, or play a supporting role in work.

I personally, would rather not own a vehicle, it is a burden. I am forced to own a vehicle because if I do not, outside of extremely limited areas in this country, I would not be able to complete my daily tasks. In owning that vehicle I now have to pay for more services which I have no interest in.

Everything revolves around opportunity costs, its been a consistent theme of this discussion. Again, opportunity cost. I can choose to stop working, however I then must choose to live off grid away from society as there are laws and restrictions in place to prevent me from doing so in most places. (Hey, here's one of those freedom losses we discussed earlier, did you know in some places it is illegal to have a home without utilities?)

My other option is to concede and be part of the GDP machine. I can participate in society, but now most of my existence is involved in work. Hey Jeff, ever feel like slavery never really died, but that it was just a shift in the master? I certainly do.

This recent pause on society is driving most people nuts. I'll admit there are certain things I do miss, however I find myself much happier on a day to day basis. I have had a large reduction in my hours, it has been great. I already knew before all of this that I don't need half of the stuff that most people desire, and in some cases I am able to remove it from my life.

That article is absolutely right that everyone is going to drive 200% to get the almighty dollars out of your pocket. Companies all over will encourage you to buy things you don't even need so you can resume your normal life. Businesses all over are flipping out because by having their products forcibly removed from our daily lives we might :gasp: realize we never needed it in the first place. Even now I see ads for companies who act like they are here for us, and they care, and our well being is their first priority. I can tell you right now that it isn't, their priority is hanging onto whatever they can in the face of massively shrinking market share.

I might be the crazy one, and I would say that it will have been better it it happened in a less deadly fashion, but I am very excited about everyone just stopping everything for a small period of time. I hope that on the backend of this people realize work isn't everything, that companies will understand the need for time off and vacation periods. That people will stop being slaves for their entire existence.

MF'R- Now we've gone full Atlas Shrugged.... (My coasterbuzz book reccomendation of the week!)

SteveWoA said:

Nobody knows for sure yet, and that's the entire point.

But we do. The virus wasn't here last year.

TheMillenniumRider said:

Hey Jeff, ever feel like slavery never really died, but that it was just a shift in the master? I certainly do.

That seems rhetorical, but you asked by name. The answer is maybe earlier in life, but firmly in midlife now, no, I don't feel that at all.

Being a part of any society means you have to put something into it, and I'm OK with that. Sometimes I like work, sometimes I don't. I've always wanted to balance life and work, and where they overlap, and sometimes I suck at it, sometimes I don't.

And I do believe the machine is broken, and this pandemic makes it glaringly obvious. I started the year with, let's call it an "involuntary career modification." My first instinct was to do something wholly for myself and on my terms, so I productized this forum app. There are a few other players, and I think it's sellable. So I did that, and anyone with a credit card can have this forum instantly.

But I'm not a sales and marketing guy. I do know you can't just put something on the Internet and start profiting. So there's a crossroad I reached: Figure it out and build a business, or go back to work. There wasn't a choice. I have a kid who has to see doctors and fill prescriptions that are hundreds a month without insurance, and my wife is vulnerable to respiratory disease. In America, healthcare is insurance is a day job.

I'd like to think that I'm a person of means, but the risk of not having a job is far too high. It could lead to the death of my spouse and a lifetime of difficulty for my child. So imagine then what it's like for a low-wage service industry worker who is now unemployed and has no means even temporarily to self-sustain... that is a completely immoral and unacceptable scenario to me, when we're supposed to be the richest country in the world. And even with this immoral inequity, we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare with lesser outcomes.

I know that's really soapboxy, but it frustrates me to no end. There is no life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness when the machine fundamentally prevents you from creating opportunity. And that's not even accounting for the institutional discrimination we still have here.

That said, I don't believe we're a slave to the machine, we just haven't been motivated enough to fix it. Maybe this will be the thing that does it.