Noneconomists struggle to realize that scarcity results in the necessity of tradeoffs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this difference in thinking causes them to wrongly accuse economists of "prioritizing money over lives."
Despite the fact that the CDC’s formal name includes the word “Prevention” and that its stated goals include various planning buzzwords, its managing of the COVID-19 response has been an unmitigated disaster.
The 2016 election was an important reminder that most experts were totally wrong in their predictions of what would happen. Now the experts are claiming that freedom and markets must be abandoned based on new guesses about the future.
Even if it’s true that some wouldn’t be able to afford schooling without government financial assistance, the idea that this necessitates the government creating and running its own schools is a glaring non sequitur.
The economy is not primarily about the adjustment of capital investment across industries and firms, but about the determination of which industries and types of production will exist—and who will be involved in this future production.
In terms of economics, what currently is should be of very little importance: what matters, and that we should seek to understand, is the process that brought it about and that will create what will be in its place.
It is possible to determine in terms of money prices the sum of the income or the wealth of a number of people. But it is nonsensical to reckon national income or national wealth.
_1.jpg?itok=4IKmX5u5)
