Your premise is flawed: keeping our human rights intact naturally won’t result in the hospitals overflowing.
If the virus is life-threatening (and I believe it is) then there is a natural disincentive to not taking necessary precautions and individuals will act accordingly, creating a positive systemic outcome. This is the basis of liberal democracy, we trust our citizens with freedom and this in turn results in better outcomes (esp innovation).
Freedom isn’t something we do just because we’re “selfish” or it’s a luxury, it’s literally a better system.
I would imply that you should have payed more attention in civics, thus insulting your intelligence but I prefer civil and respectful discourse. Ideas matter.
In another comment you said the government prohibited you from selling coffee to willing patrons. I'm sorry to hear that, but think about that. People are/were literally going to a random coffee shop and stay among strangers in the middle of a pandemic.
This pandemic clearly showed that telling people to "just use your common sense" in an once-in-a-lifetime crisis leads to disaster. Hardly surprising, when you think about it - we never tell employers/employees to "just use your common sense whether a particular construction job is dangerous," in fact we have elaborate rules to decide exactly what is dangerous, and a whole government department to enforce it, so why would a novel infectious disease that nobody has any hands-on experience any different?
Recommend people wear masks, take vaccines and etc. I have no issue with that and I do it myself without hesitation. I have issue with making it mandatory. Especially forcing places of business to close down.
People work construction jobs voluntarily. Voluntary is good. Let’s live in a voluntary collaboration-oriented society. We did, once.
If the virus is life-threatening (and I believe it is) then there is a natural disincentive to not taking necessary precautions and individuals will act accordingly, creating a positive systemic outcome. This is the basis of liberal democracy, we trust our citizens with freedom and this in turn results in better outcomes (esp innovation).
Freedom isn’t something we do just because we’re “selfish” or it’s a luxury, it’s literally a better system.
I would imply that you should have payed more attention in civics, thus insulting your intelligence but I prefer civil and respectful discourse. Ideas matter.