Originally Posted by iaflyer

You and I allow the government (which is really just everyone around you, we elect people to represent us) to set rules and standards all the time. We give the government the right to require all sorts of things like:

Stopping at red lights.
Speed limits and other regulations about driving on the road
Driving on a certain side of the road.
If you want to build an car or an airplane, it has to meet certain standards
Food Safety
etc

A requirement to wear a mask when not on your private property isn't any different from the few examples I listed above.

I think wearing a mask helps prevent a much larger public health crisis, that as we see, is going to decimate the economy if we don't get it under control. However, I think American are too individualist to listen to scientists and people who's job is it to save lives to stop Covid. Many parts of the world are doing fine - just not us.