Ebola and the Taking of Private Rights for Public Good

The nurse quarantine-gate is somewhat familiar to civil engineering - we all work with the notion of eminent domain and the "taking" of private property for a public good.  We just pay people market prices for the taking.

If you are going to quarantine very brave and dedicated health professionals for 21-days - - you need to pay them during that period - - the government body doing the taking needs to be the payer.

From CNN:

"I believe that folks who want to take that step and are willing to volunteer also understand that it's in their interest and the public health interest to have a 21-day (quarantine) period thereafter if they've been directly exposed to people with the virus," Christie said on Fox News Sunday.

"I don't believe when you're dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system," he said. "This is government's job. If anything else, the government's job is to protect safety and health of our citizens."