The Economic Disaster of the Pandemic Response

Jeffrey A. Tucker | Brownstone Institute

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-economic-disaster-of-the-pandemic-response/

From the article …

Tradeoffs

Even if the lockdowns had saved lives over the long term—and the literature on this overwhelmingly suggests they did not—it would be proper to ask the question: at what cost? What are the tradeoffs?

Because economic considerations were shelved for the emergency, policymakers failed to consider tradeoffs. Thus did the White House on March 16, 2020, send out the most dreaded imaginable directive from an economic point of view: “bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms, and other indoor and outdoor venues where groups of people congregate should be closed.” And the results were legion.

For one thing, the lockdowns kicked off an epic bout of government spending. COVID-response spending amounted to at least $6 trillion above normal operations, running the national debt up to 121 percent of GDP. For comparison, our national debt in 1981 amounted to 35 percent of GDP—and Ronald Reagan correctly declared that a crisis.

There is no wall of separation between economics and public health. A healthy economy is indispensable for healthy people. Shutting down economic life was a singularly bad idea for taking on a pandemic.

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
10 Comments
The Central Scrutinizer
The Central Scrutinizer
December 10, 2022 8:38 am

Ready, Fire…AIM!!!

boron
boron
December 10, 2022 10:01 am

Was this mismanagement, stupidity, or a deliberate act to destroy our country?

TwatWaffle
TwatWaffle
  boron
December 10, 2022 10:59 am

Surely you can’t be serious

flash
flash
  TwatWaffle
December 10, 2022 11:17 am

Can’t wait to read the bowtie buttboy’s missive on whu muh diversity is so great for ‘murica’s economy .

comment image

…never mind, the fag has already been weighed, and comes up way too lite for his loafers.

The more you look into the research, the more these objections fall away. Immigrants cause less crime than natives. Immigration does not cause unemployment. Immigrants don’t consume more public benefits than natives; in fact, they use fewer. Indeed, they have kept Social Security afloat, even though they will never get a dime from the system. They don’t love liberty less: they poll in as more libertarian. Indeed, every one of these and other claims in Trump’s immigration policy paper are patently wrong.

Apparently, the facts don’t matter. And as for humane values and human rights, forget it. Immigration restriction is a fundamental attack on the rights of at least two parties: the person who wants to employ someone currently outside the border and the person who wants to come work. It’s a thuggish interference with an economic exchange, like any other arbitrary restriction on trade.

Why Open Borders?

I’ll start taking advice from doody packers the day Stucky swears off pounding his pud.

comment image

comment image

Anthony Aaron
Anthony Aaron
  boron
December 10, 2022 7:19 pm

Given the attempts by practicing physicians as well as medical researchers on all of the issues surrounding the FauciFlu going back as far as February, 2020, to enlighten US as to all of the dangers and falsehoods and frauds being committed against US — and given the relentless push by any and all in the bureaucracy that’s running this Nation — is there really any other conclusion other than that this entire ‘pan(dem)ic’ is a deliberate act to destroy our Nation and as many people on planet Earth as possible?

AKJOHN
AKJOHN
December 10, 2022 11:58 am

The Plandemic was made to smash the middle class and bring in global tyranny. They want to control every aspect of our lives. Non compliance is how we fight back. I am still in an unvaxed and untested house.

Aunt Acid
Aunt Acid
  AKJOHN
December 10, 2022 12:49 pm

Everyday confronting the criminally psychotic “New Normal” is the test, John.

AKJOHN
AKJOHN
  Aunt Acid
December 10, 2022 2:16 pm

Thanks. Gave me a good chuckle. THE DELUSION was always there. The plandemic turned the delusion into a mass psychotic event.

VOWG
VOWG
  AKJOHN
December 11, 2022 7:46 am

Ditto.

VOWG
VOWG
December 11, 2022 7:45 am

Dumb f**** bent over and took it. They accepted the lie. The people are to blame all of them.