That the expressions “closing the economy” or “reopening the economy” are widely and unthinkingly used suggests a deep problem: the state—governments at all level—has become so incredibly powerful that it can open or close large parts the complex and multifaceted network of exchanges between millions of individuals. It’s like if the government were a store owner and we were its store employees.
As I pointed out in an earlier post on this blog, even the Wall Street Journal writes unblinkingly that “countries,” by which it means national governments, can “reopen their societies.” If the state is so powerful as to open and close “its” society, perhaps it’s time for society to close its government—or, certainly, big chunks of it?
This language acknowledging Leviathan- or Hydra-like power of the state should worry even those who think that there is some justification for government measures to combat an epidemic such as Covid-19.
READER COMMENTS
Alan Goldhammer
Jun 28 2020 at 3:35pm
It is far better to talk about it as ‘minimizing the impact on the healthcare system.’ This is in fact what is being done in order to make sure that a hospital surge did not occur. Unfortunately, what was learned in Milan, Bergamo, Wuhan, Seoul and New York City (and other places) has been ignored by large swaths of the United State.
robc
Jun 29 2020 at 9:17am
I think we overlearned the lesson from those places.
If the goal is minimizing the impact, then we shutdown too hard in most places, as the impact was large (in terms of health care layoffs and empty hospitals). We came nowhere close to capacity and now things are, not unexpectedly, going back up a bit. We should have run higher hospital capacity in March/April/May. Places were running at 5% of capacity, instead of 60-80% or something. We flattened way too much, more people needed to get COVID earlier.
For one thing, we should have never closed schools.
Thomas Hutcheson
Jul 4 2020 at 9:01am
We failed to learn that it was a bad idea to “shut down” (and subsequently to “open up”) firms and public places based on category of “essential-ness” instead of regulating then to reduce transmission in a cost effective way. Equally important we failed to create pre- and post-testing and tracing infrastructure, including for asymptomatic individuals, that would permit better recommendations about isolation to minimize the chance of the infected person transmitting the disease to others.
Thomas Hutcheson
Jul 4 2020 at 9:53am
“Minimizing” the impact on the health system is not quite right. Efforts to prevent transmission that reduce case loads below the capacity of the heath system can also be cost effective.
Roger D McKinney
Jun 30 2020 at 10:59am
Exactly! I wrote on this also here: https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/rogermckinney/2020/04/20/the-economy-cannot-be-stopped-and-restarted-like-a-machine-n2567227
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