Spending all that time clueless means that you're wasting time you could have spent reacting to the situation. It's not just about refunds, if you blocked out four weeks for a doomed vacation, then knowing that the vacation is doomed in advance will give you time to prepare an alternate itinerary for those four weeks rather than finding out perhaps a few days beforehand.
> The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc
My water usage varies across months, I am hardly unique in saying that I don't keep a close tab on the water price breakdown. Many people auto-pay their electronic bills and don't check in very often until something goes very wrong (like the water gets shut off). These are the kinds of important items that show up very prominently in local headlines though.
> breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk.
That's not what I'm saying. By the time you realize that you're actually breaking the law, you're already being punished. Suppose there's a law that punishes BBQs during fire season. If I'm not aware of this BBQ law in advance (eg. via the news), by the time I'm fined or arrested for unknowingly hosting a big BBQ, it's too late for me to figure out that it's illegal.
As others have said, there are other ways to obtain this information but news feeds will highlight noteworthy issues. Do you repeatedly poll the health dept website for the latest guidance? That's one way to keep up to date on Covid restrictions, but generally it's even more inconvenient to poll everything that matters.
it's a tradeoff between time wasted to react to the situation and time wasted to keep yourself informed. Based on my own experience the time you need to adapt to the situation is a fraction from the time you spend watching the news.
> The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc
My water usage varies across months, I am hardly unique in saying that I don't keep a close tab on the water price breakdown. Many people auto-pay their electronic bills and don't check in very often until something goes very wrong (like the water gets shut off). These are the kinds of important items that show up very prominently in local headlines though.
> breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk.
That's not what I'm saying. By the time you realize that you're actually breaking the law, you're already being punished. Suppose there's a law that punishes BBQs during fire season. If I'm not aware of this BBQ law in advance (eg. via the news), by the time I'm fined or arrested for unknowingly hosting a big BBQ, it's too late for me to figure out that it's illegal.
As others have said, there are other ways to obtain this information but news feeds will highlight noteworthy issues. Do you repeatedly poll the health dept website for the latest guidance? That's one way to keep up to date on Covid restrictions, but generally it's even more inconvenient to poll everything that matters.