George Reisman writes on his blog on Non-essential Jobs:
Any job on which anyone’s livelihood depends is essential. It is essential to that person and his family. Without it, they may not be able to buy food or pay rent.
This is not the view of Gov. Newsom and the other petty tyrants now running amuck in our country and impoverishing and virtually imprisoning tens of millions of innocent people.
They believe that to be “essential,” one’s work must be essential to others. To them, only “others” matter, not individuals in and of themselves. On this basis, without a second thought, they issue edicts upon edicts and impose suffering on millions.
The philosophical basis for this conception of what is “essential” is the moral code of altruism.
Writes Ayn Rand in her essay “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World” republished in Philosophy: Who Needs It, on the nature of altruism:
What is the moral code of altruism? The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.