Last night we learned that stores in Vermont had been instructed to prohibit the sale of vegetable seeds because of the pandemic. Part of that report included my failed effort to find the provenance. A reader just sent it to me. And it’s not just vegetable seeds.
Related: Vegetable Seed Purchases Prohibited (In VT) ‘Cuz COVID-19?
The Green Mountain State is now micro-managing commerce at large retailers.
“Large ‘big box’ retailers generate significant shopping traffic by virtue of their size and the variety of goods offered in a single location,” said Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle. “This volume of shopping traffic significantly increases the risk of further spread of this dangerous virus to Vermonters and the viability of Vermont’s health care system. We are directing these stores to put public health first and help us reduce the number of shoppers by requiring on-line ordering, delivery and curbside pickup whenever possible, and by stopping the sale of non-essential items.”
You can review the order here, and there is a list of state-approved “essential items” and guidance (Sieg Heil!). So, no, they are not banned. You can still order them for delivery or pick-up. But I still have questions.
For example, if the point of the order is to maximize social distancing by minimizing foot traffic to large stores with a broad range of offerings, how is this being communicated to the public? We first learned about it from the picture in a Tweet taken by someone who was already in the store.
People won’t know what items out of the tens of thousands are truly restricted until they get there.
It sort of, kind of, defeats the purpose.
And a lot of people do not watch the news or get a newspaper and even fewer check the state website or once there can find what you expect them to know.
Put another way, how do you plan to flatten the knowledge curve to flatten the infection curve? That’s without addressing the differences over what is essential to some and not others. I know, that’s why we have legislators and bureaucrats. They can tell us what we need and don’t need. But these are the same people who feel certain we do not need all the money we legally earn, the natural rights we are born with, or even personal choices about as wide a range of things as one might find in the average Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Target Store.
And Putting Stay Home Stay Safe at the end of each new directive is hardly justification for these actions. It leads one to consider an appropriate riposte like, say, “F**k off, and Go to Hell.”
It fits nicely on a business card or bumper sticker.
We are ruining more lives with this crap than we might theoretically be saving. Nearly 7 million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. Some number of them will end up drunk, drugged, or suicidal because we are afraid that folks might catch the flu – knowing that almost all of them will recover from that flu in one-to-two weeks while many more may never recover from the government’s acts of economic force.
This is insane. And not just because we’ve crossed a bridge and the odds are good that the State will not want to give up this newfound authority. Or wield it under even less appropriate circumstances.
The answer to the problem posed by the question is to vote the tyrants out of office but you can’t do that if they won’t let you out to vote.
Don’t laugh, we are letting them close businesses and prohibit in-store purchases. If you think there isn’t more of this to come, I have a Nubian Prince ‘Freind’ who wants to share his fortune with you. He just needs you to stay home and stay safe, and your bank account ID and routing number.
