The perfect definition of an essential worker

[HariSeldon]

19. I appreciate the sentiment, but...

...as a systems thinker, I'd have to say that "essentialness" is not a Boolean condition, but measured by how long the average person can go without the provided service before experiencing lasting negative consequences, where lower values indicate higher "essentialness." This puts EMTs, firefighters, and emergency care medical workers at the highest level of essentialness, but then police, utility workers, other medical providers, followed by retail food workers, food transport providers, automotive fuel providers (retail and supply chain), etc.

In a short term situation, especially one planned in advance, only the "less than a few hours" level of essential workers should be needed. But there are essential services we, as a society, depend on that cannot be suspended for months at a time which did not need to operate today.