Neither voters nor politicians watch the bureaucracy very carefully, so they respond as one might expect—advancing their own and their favorites' interests, at the expense of the public they are supposedly working for.
Lord Kelvin once said, “If you cannot measure it, then it is not science” and “your theory is apt to be based more upon imagination than upon knowledge.” This would certainly seem to apply to the many COVID-19 models now used to destroy human rights across the globe.
The difference between modern economics and proper economic thinking lies in taking the step that comes after arriving at the "unseen," to the "unrealized."
With oil prices in likely long-term tailspin, corrupt governments can't count on oil sales to bail them out anymore. But Mexico's government didn't get the memo and still clings to the state oil monopoly.
The people who really run the country are unelected "experts" and bureaucrats at the central banks, at public health agencies, spy agencies, and an expanding network of boards and commissions.
Part of what made the Great Depression last so long was increased uncertainty about what regulation or tax the government might impose next. Today's looming threat of ongoing "shutdowns" creates a very similar situation.
From medical practices to grocery shipments, governments are loosening restrictions in order to keep goods and services affordable. But if these restrictions are unnecessary now, why claim they are ever necessary?
Federal regulation of medical tests and testing needs to be ended and left to the states. And then state authority must be broken up and decentralized even further.
From trade barriers to disastrous government regulations, government intervention has crippled society's ability to respond well to the spread of disease.
