> I thought it was more insulting for that person to value the work of hairdressers and manicurists and yoga instructors on an equal basis with firefighters, doctors, paramedics, and actual real "essential" workers.
Part of fairness is in treating equal things equally, and unequal things unequally.
Even talking about non-first responders, the folks in supermarkets are more essential on this spectrum than beauticians of various niches IMHO.
You ninja'd your comment into something completely different... Responsing to your original comment about MREs: the supply chains for supermarkets already exist. I'd be very surprised if there were enough MREs to feed everyone for a year and then still have the ability to restart normal supply chains from a dead stop.
Regular people shop at supermarkets so they don't starve. Armies carry food supplies so they don't have to shop at local supermarkets. They bring barbers because tight haircuts are essential to military dress and clean shaved faces are critical to tight sealing gas masks.
Part of fairness is in treating equal things equally, and unequal things unequally.
Even talking about non-first responders, the folks in supermarkets are more essential on this spectrum than beauticians of various niches IMHO.