When Politicians Panicked

"[it is] not just that politicians reacted in tragic fashion to a virus, but that this reaction is what we can always expect unless we change the narrative away from expecting politicians to have an answer to societal problems real and perceived, and instead turn to free people to solve what comes their way." Even though anecdotal and market-based evidence from the virus’s epicenter indicated very low lethality, politicians quickly imposed economy-crushing lockdowns on the rather specious assumption that unemployment, bankruptcy, and starvation would somehow halt the virus’s spread. Economic growth has long been the first and last answer to death and disease. Politicians mindlessly crushed a growing economy, doubling down on their mistakes by throwing taxpayer money at their shocking errors. Free people don’t just produce the wealth that renders today’s killers yesterday’s news, they also produce crucial information about health threats that shine critical light on that which threatens us. Let’s never again fight disease with the taking of freedom and wealth so essential to knowledge, prosperity, and by extension, life itself. Freedom must be the first and last answer to any governmental response. John Tamny is vice president at FreedomWorks, and director of its Center for Economic Freedom. He’s also editor of RealClearMarkets, and senior economic adviser to mutual fund firm Applied Finance Group. His next book, set for release on March 30, 2021, is titled When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason. Past books by Tamny include Popular Economics (Regnery, 2015), a primer on economics, Who Needs the Fed? (Encounter, 2016), about the central bank’s onrushing irrelevance, The End of Work (Regnery, 2018), which discusses the exciting evolution of jobs that don’t feel at all like work, and They’re Both Wrong: A Policy Guide for America's Frustrated Independent Thinkers (AIER, 2019). This is a presentation of the Free Enterprise Society at Oklahoma State University... Originally broadcast March 29, 2021...