Public Choice and Public Policy
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Lockdowns are Killing Young Adults
“Like so many instances before, another top medical journal has now contributed to the widespread dissemination of incomplete and misleading scientific inferences. Our news media then predictably seized on the same faulty conclusions and shoehorned them into a political narrative that confirmed their own pro-lockdown ideological commitments.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
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Twelve Times the Lockdowners Were Wrong
“This has been a year of astonishing policy failure. We are surrounded by devastation conceived and cheered by intellectuals and their political handmaidens. We trusted these people with our lives and liberties and here is what they did with that trust.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
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Drink Your Coffee, Be Considerate, and Fight Covid-19
“Lockdowns are a blunt policy instrument typical of government officials who can only pretend to know how individuals make choices and the tradeoffs they face. However, we can still be considerate of the choices people make and fight Covid-19.” ~ Byron Carson
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So Much for the “Strawman” of Lockdowns
“Similar returns to lockdown are being actively discussed at the national level across Europe, and on a regional basis in the United States. The much-derided ‘straw man’ of renewed lockdowns, it would appear, has already sprung to life.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
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The Strange Advent of Lockdown Denialism
“As the latest repackaging of this epidemiological bill of goods gains traction in our public discourse, the world has but one viable pathway out of the present social, economic, and medical hellscape. And that is to meet the lockdowners with a resounding no.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
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How the Virus Penetrated Fortress New Zealand
“Far from adopting this strategy as a model, the world must avoid the corner of perpetual recurring lockdowns in which New Zealand now finds itself. And New Zealand’s government would be wise to drop the hubristic pretensions of commanding and controlling a virus through medieval self-isolation, seeking instead an alternative strategy that is robust to…
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Fact-Checking Fauci
“The pro-lockdown position favored by Fauci and several US media outlets has become a matter of ideological commitment. Whether they are doing so to rationalize the costs we have already incurred from this disastrous approach or to further politicize the pandemic response for a variety of electoral and partisan purposes, they have embraced a pro-lockdown…
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Longer Lockdowns Associated with Much Worse Economic Outcomes
“It’s obvious that if you restrict and ban certain businesses, they will suffer for it. Some business owners who made it through the first wave of lockdowns are saying their businesses won’t be able to survive another. This isn’t rocket science.” ~Abigail Devereaux
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Evolutionary Failure: When Mass Psychology is like a Negative Technology Shock
“This general acceptance of a fear of others that separates us from each other exacerbates all our worst proclivities and maximizes the economic destruction of the pandemic. We need to return to a robust market to preserve the division of labor. Perhaps you think this is an exaggeration, and we hope you are right, but…
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Safety First is a Bad Ideology
“With the birth of capitalism, we tolerated social mobility: both downward and more heroically, upward. The churning of the social space is consistent with a greater toleration of risk. Maybe we haven’t convinced you with regard to public health issues during a pandemic, but at least consider the weight placed on safety the next time…
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•
Lockdowns are Killing Young Adults
“Like so many instances before, another top medical journal has now contributed to the widespread dissemination of incomplete and misleading scientific inferences. Our news media then predictably seized on the same faulty conclusions and shoehorned them into a political narrative that confirmed their own pro-lockdown ideological commitments.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
-
•
Twelve Times the Lockdowners Were Wrong
“This has been a year of astonishing policy failure. We are surrounded by devastation conceived and cheered by intellectuals and their political handmaidens. We trusted these people with our lives and liberties and here is what they did with that trust.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
-
•
Drink Your Coffee, Be Considerate, and Fight Covid-19
“Lockdowns are a blunt policy instrument typical of government officials who can only pretend to know how individuals make choices and the tradeoffs they face. However, we can still be considerate of the choices people make and fight Covid-19.” ~ Byron Carson
-
•
So Much for the “Strawman” of Lockdowns
“Similar returns to lockdown are being actively discussed at the national level across Europe, and on a regional basis in the United States. The much-derided ‘straw man’ of renewed lockdowns, it would appear, has already sprung to life.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
-
•
The Strange Advent of Lockdown Denialism
“As the latest repackaging of this epidemiological bill of goods gains traction in our public discourse, the world has but one viable pathway out of the present social, economic, and medical hellscape. And that is to meet the lockdowners with a resounding no.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
-
•
How the Virus Penetrated Fortress New Zealand
“Far from adopting this strategy as a model, the world must avoid the corner of perpetual recurring lockdowns in which New Zealand now finds itself. And New Zealand’s government would be wise to drop the hubristic pretensions of commanding and controlling a virus through medieval self-isolation, seeking instead an alternative strategy that is robust to…
-
•
Fact-Checking Fauci
“The pro-lockdown position favored by Fauci and several US media outlets has become a matter of ideological commitment. Whether they are doing so to rationalize the costs we have already incurred from this disastrous approach or to further politicize the pandemic response for a variety of electoral and partisan purposes, they have embraced a pro-lockdown…
-
•
Longer Lockdowns Associated with Much Worse Economic Outcomes
“It’s obvious that if you restrict and ban certain businesses, they will suffer for it. Some business owners who made it through the first wave of lockdowns are saying their businesses won’t be able to survive another. This isn’t rocket science.” ~Abigail Devereaux
-
•
Evolutionary Failure: When Mass Psychology is like a Negative Technology Shock
“This general acceptance of a fear of others that separates us from each other exacerbates all our worst proclivities and maximizes the economic destruction of the pandemic. We need to return to a robust market to preserve the division of labor. Perhaps you think this is an exaggeration, and we hope you are right, but…
-
•
Safety First is a Bad Ideology
“With the birth of capitalism, we tolerated social mobility: both downward and more heroically, upward. The churning of the social space is consistent with a greater toleration of risk. Maybe we haven’t convinced you with regard to public health issues during a pandemic, but at least consider the weight placed on safety the next time…