By: Henry Dooley
Across the country there have been arguments to open bars, restaurants, and pubs in small towns and cities alike. Fort Collins is no stranger to these debates and with a fluctuating population due to CSU both sides make valid points. There are currently 228 bars, restaurants and taverns open for business in Fort Collins (1) at limited capacity, but should these places get ready to open back up at full capacity soon?
Currently healthcare workers, the elderly and teachers are allowed to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado, which still leaves a majority of the population at risk to spread and contract the virus (2). I believe that the city should continue as planned and only allow outdoor dinning and partial indoor dinning.
While unemployment has risen to 16 million during the past year due to the lockdown, many people have lsot their jobs and businesses, the fact of the matter is that opening up fully will result in the loss of life. A loss that we might not be able to predict.
Another argument for opening however is that by impovrishing the economy we are depriving it of development “we are currently impoverishing the economy, which means we are reducing our capacity in the long term to provide exactly those things that people are talking about that we need — better health care services, better social-security arrangements to make sure that people aren’t in poverty. There are victims in the future, after the pandemic, who will bear these costs. The economic costs we incur now will spill over, in terms of loss of lives, loss of quality of life, and loss of well-being.” (3) says philosopher Peter Singer, in a New York Times article published late last year.
While Singer does make a compeling point for opening up based on the ecenomic future for generations to come, there is an argument that a loss of life would be far more detrimental to the future of Fort Collins than the ecenomic impact alone.
