This article was originally published by The Editors at The Mises Institute.
The shutdown of the American economy by government decree should end. The lasting and far-reaching harms caused by this authoritarian precedent far outweigh those caused by the COVID-19 virus. The American people—individuals, families, businesses—must decide for themselves how and when to reopen society and return to their daily lives.
Neither the Trump administration nor Congress has the legal authority to shut down American life absent at least baseline due process. As Judge Andrew Napolitano recently wrote, business closures, restrictions on assembly and movement, and quarantines are not constitutionally permissible under some magic “emergency” doctrine. At a minimum, the federal government must show potential imminent harm by specific infected individuals at some form of hearing or trial.
These due process requirements are not suspended.
State and local officials may claim, or even possess, lawful police powers to shut down their communities. We offer no analysis of such powers or claims under the myriad of state constitutions and authorizing legislation. But they should resist exercising these powers. The governor of Virginia, in particular, deserves admonition for unilaterally imposing a lengthy period of virtual house arrest.
We do not know, and cannot yet know, how many Americans will become sick or die from the virus. We do know that predictions regarding infection and death rates are highly unreliable. Even actual deaths attributable to COVID-19 are not so easy to count, as Italy has discovered. Age, general health, and comorbidity are difficult variables to assess, and people may die “with” the virus but not “from” it. It is also very difficult to assess the lethality of the virus relative to previously known types of flu and colds.
To date, COVID-19 deaths in the US are far fewer than deaths in ordinary flu seasons or from past pandemics such as the H1N1 virus. This understanding is critically important to put the virus, and the government response to it, in perspective. Even during past pandemics, depressions, and world wars, Americans went to work.
In 1850, French economist Frédéric Bastiat helped the world understand the “seen and unseen costs” of state policies. It is simple to see how quarantines and lockdowns will slow the spread of COVID-19. It is critical, but not so simple, to see the costs and harms caused by the economic shutdown.
Only then can we rationally understand the tradeoffs involved.
How many Americans suffering from other illnesses cannot see a doctor now? How many Americans will lose their jobs, their life savings, their retirement prospects, and their incalculable feeling of self-worth? How many will succumb to depression, drug or alcohol abuse, and suicide? How many will lose their homes, divorce their spouses, or suffer abuse? How many will never recover in their careers? How many small businesses, including the vital ones of doctors, dentists, and veterinarians, will vanish from your community? How many young people will “fail to launch”?
Worse still, will grocery stores and gas stations remain open and stocked? Will crime spike? Will the American social fabric, already thin from politics, tear apart?
These questions are not rhetorical. All of these things happened, to a degree, following the Great Recession of 2008. They will happen again—very soon—if we fail to act immediately. Tomorrow, on April 1, millions of Americans will not pay rent or mortgages. Millions of small businesses will shutter, just as many large employers such as Macy’s, Kohl’s, airlines, and hotels already have. Millions of service workers are unemployed already, but many more jobs will be lost. The effects will cascade.
There is no conflict between humanitarian and economic concerns; in fact, they are flipsides of the same coin. A poorer America will be a much less healthy America, one more vulnerable to future illness and disease. Technology, modern medicine, and market actors can address a virus; already we see entrepreneurs producing cheaper ventilators and doctors using cheap generic drugs with very promising results.
This local, bottom-up approach is the only effective way to confront the virus. The federal government, as we see now and have in the past, is comically incapable of competence in times of crisis.
On a fundamental level, freedom really is more important than security—or, in this case, an illusion of security. We all demonstrate this in our personal lives every day, from flying to driving to riding bicycles, to consuming unhealthy food and drink simply because we like it. Security has never been the sole or even primary goal for a country born in rebellion.
Government cannot decide what aspects of our lives are essential or nonessential. The American people cannot simply sit at home and wait for government checks written on funds that government does not have.
End the shutdown.
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I agree. With that said I do know 1 person now with corona. He had pnumonia a while back and isn’t the healthiest person. He is in bad shape in ICU but that seems to be a requirement for this. This whole charade has cost me 1 week of work. Big deal eh. With the 600 bux on top of unemployment I will be doing great. I fear the govt. waaayyyy more than the virus. Never let a good crisis go to waste huh. If you want to go to work then do it. If you get sick theres a 95% chance you will be ok. If your a fat chronically ill person then worry but not me. Imma live like a king at my cabin now. Quarantine? BWWWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Genius, long time no hear from. How’ve you been? I’m at my BOL permanently now since last July and loving every minute of it. I only go to town once or twice a week now for anything. This whole charade is just that, a charade. I work in one of my cousins’ businesses now. Only get the same kind of money I made back in Memphis but fewer hours and only a few miles from home. Life is better for me now than ever.
Hello Genius and DEP Ren. Prepping keeps us here. Here are some facts: Cut n paste the video links and take out the spaces in the http
Covid19 is a Manufactured FRAUD and 5-G Internet Triggers false positive in the body’s stress and fear cells.
Mark Twain — ‘It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.’
Everybody needs to watch these videos before they are banned. We are being duped.
5G internet is EVIL military grade microwaves, invented by the US and Israhelli Military for Crowd control.. Just amazing how this virus spread so fast? Conspiracy.
News Link • Pandemic
Seriously. How much longer are we going to put up with all the BS..???
04-07-2020 • Facebook – Dr Eric Neptune SPEAKS OUT of this FRAUD ViDEO
ht tp://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/280398-2020-04-07-seriously-how-much-longer-are-we-going-to-put-up.htm?From=News
Below- The Relationship of 5G internet (Military Grade Microwaves) and this Fraud Pandemic, to trigger positive Covid19 tests results. This 5G triggers our body’s fear and stress cell receptors in the body to give the Fake Positive results of the Covid19. This is FRAUD
Banned video put up on IPFS so it won’t go away…
Donna Hancock
Banned David Icke/London Real Video
ht tps://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmTYGiyBsZZsLnfCU5CAiYkhgLb7tT3iGK6bAA5HWTsf59
The Simple cure of Covid19 is: to drink “SCHWEPPS Tonic Water (which contains large amounts of Quinine), and take Zinc Tablets About 50MG about 4 times daily. If you start to have signs or symptoms. Or take for a short period to prevent Covid19. Other helpful remedies are large doses of Vitamin C. See the first video for the Doctor Eric Neptune’s details to this. Using Respirators are counter-productive to this Virus.
Seek the truth everybody. There are a lot of evil people in the word with evil motives.
Stay Safe Preppers.. Fear No One and their Fraud against us.. Expose the Cockroaches for (((who))) they are.
People Jobless, Broke, Desperate.
An entitled class that likes to steal-rob-riot-burn-murder, and rationalise ANY and ALL idiotic violent behaivor.
So tell me people, “How do you think this will go if this idiotic shutdown preplanned plandemic ChiCom bioweapon test continues?”
The shutdown is TYRANNY.
Arresting pastors for holding church service is TYRANNY.
Politicians are Liars.
Media are LIARS.
And you people fall for this psyop?
comments banned again
BAN the ChiCom CCP from America
all the businesses in my area are open even the non essential ones. they have found the loophole by filing essential business status. even eateries like panera bread and chipotle are open. im still working getting more overtime and just got a 70 cent an hr raise. people are very paranoid and looking for reasons to skip out of work. employers are calling unemployment to report temporary laid off workers who arent taking work and putting in claims for the days missed. just saying there is work out there its spring. home depot is busy and looking for help. put the hysteria aside and think you need incum while your living. if your cowering in your apartment over the virus your gonna pay for it by losing your place and your car. people can be flat out convinced by the media to give up and stay home. very weak. i dont feel any sympathy for people staying home. if my employer was weak and closed id find another job quick. not gonna lose $ over some virus that kills a small amount of people. they dont talk about the many that survive.
Survivors are being left with PERMANENT lung damage, rendering some as cripples for life. How will THAT affect your ability to work in the future? You go to work, makes no matter to me… I’ll just stay home, work on my preps, and stay safe LIKE WE’RE ALL SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.
I agree Phoenix! This is America and supposed to be a free nation. Given that I believe that if a person wants to exercise stupidity, let them! I also believe that if the healthcare industry gets overwhelmed and unable to deal with the swelling numbers, due to willfully ignorant people then let them suffer the consequences, I will pray for them as I pray for all people.
There is a smarter way for people to get to work to do their jobs and be safe, which is what should have already been done! Make it mandatory for EVERYONE to wear a mask whenever in public! If this policy were enacted before the crisis fully hit the USA, we wouldn’t be in this mess now! The Govt has to own the fact that they created more problems by dealing out two distinct and different versions of the truth! the first Govt lie, was the flu has killed more people! The second lie was that face masks don’t do anyone any good! Both of these lies are now being walked back because they were in fact lies! Be well all and God bless….
Hear Hear. Good call brah!!
Life Rule #1) If one submits to bullshitters, one will be covered in shit.
Not a single radio show host on Sputnik is telling the truth about the coronavirus hoax and the economic train wreck that precipitated it and is being used as a convenient excuse by psychopaths for financial fraud and opportunistically by Orwellian socialist psychopaths of the most extreme nature.
Richard Wolf claims that what we are experiencing is a failure of capitalism, but in reality, we are experiencing a failure of socialism. In capitalism, bankrupt businesses are allowed to fail. After the fourth economic collapse in thirty-three years, with each bail-out bigger than the last, it is the collectivist socialists who have failed the most!
Something smells rotten in America! My guess is that the majority of the stock buy-backs were funnelled to not strictly high-level management, but average workers also demanded them, which they refuse to admit to, since Richard Wolf falsely stated “Under a capitalist system, dividends are paid out to share-holders. Everyone knows that.” Now these same workers and corporate executives that have had massive Pentagon subsidies and have all collectively decided that they are willing, ready, able, and eager to violate the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 13th amendment rights of Americans, for their own rapacity and predation are demanding that the government nationalize them!
Fuck you! You deserve nothing! You are evil, sadistic, abusive, predatory fascist, treasonous psychopaths!
How many small businesses and self-employed people have ever been bailed-out by the government?!
The correct answer is Zero!
Since I am an opponent of fasists, I support ending the shut-down, but I have been self-isolating for over three years now, and this coronavirus hoax, and people’s opportunistic reactions to it leave me with the conclusion that I will continue self-isolation because of all of the psychopaths in America, who are in fact more uncivilized than wild animals, and even scare off wild animals just by being present.
Only humans develop nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, go to war, and attack their own species on such a mass scale.
This is beyond animialistic! It is nihilistic and cannibalistic! You deserve each other! Have fun in your kleptocratic cult of corruption, predation, and destruction!
Cheer up bro, can’t be that bad. You’ve been self-isolating for too long!! 3 years?? shid.
Firstly, I am not a bro, secondly, yes, it is that bad. Everytime I leave my house it is broken into by psychopaths in my white trash hood of Grafton Wisconsin.
The easy thing to say is to “flee the city”, or in your case, “the suburb of Milwaukee”,but I realize that it’s not that simple.
I have not been in Grafton, or Milwaukee,in roughly 20 years,but it was inevitable that the crime in Milwaukee was going to migrate the 20 miles north and settle in Grafton.
The same thing has happened in just about every suburb across the country.
Crime from the cities eventually filter out into the surrounding suburbs.
The only way to reduce your chances of becoming a victim of crime is to flee from the cities and suburbs and settle in rural America.
Living in rural America doesn’t guarantee that you will not be a victim of crime, but at least it drastically reduces the potential.
Good luck to you Andrea, hang in there.
Elkhound,
Thanks. This was rural America when I moved here. I refuse to be bullied out of my home by white trash terrorist psychopaths on moral principal alone. I refuse to reward people for evil behavior on the grounds that it only provides positive reinforcement for evil terrorism. Obviously, I do not work for the government, that rewards people for terrorism.
This site and many others around the web have dedicated endless articles, over-hyping this pandemic.
Most of these articles were based on blatant mis-information and intentional deceit.
And now you are calling to “end the lockdown”?
Well that’s not your call and frankly you should probably be more concerned with pending liability at this point.
It seems the libertarians and tag along alt right buddies have lost their nerve.
For years you have been calling for the crash and burn , so stop with the back peddling already.
Don’t pussy out now….lets see what you got.
-the reader
The keyboard cowboys are finding out that they are not as hard core as they thought they were.
Get ready for Mad Max!
#QTAC-6
Get ready for Mad Max!
President Trump is a businessman, not a virologist. He is advised by professionals in that field and has to weigh his decision of what’s best for the country and its people based on their recommendations. I see the Governors of many states exercising far more draconian measures, which is within their position to do so, yet this article like so many others, blames President Trump. The bias shows.
I will say that personally I think this is all a plannedemic. Far too many things don’t add up. It’s the last gasp of the middle class. We’re being shown just who our overlords consider useless food eaters vs. necessary serfs. I personally believe that any job that puts food in your belly and a roof over you head is essential.
A financial reset is in place. Soon money will go digital and with this shutdown it will be easier in the future to do again. Expect food riots as the delivery system degrades and riots in general when everybody gets antsy. Keep your toilet paper close and weapons loaded.
Jim,
You have either a very active imagination or a mental illness. Hopefully it is the former.
Bill
Hey Bill, Jim in VA is 100% Correct. THIS is the NWO’s evil scheme unfolding, however their greatest enemy is the truth.
This is another fake pandemic false flag to control the money supply since the lies of 9-11 failed to stick. Way too many smart people know Buildings (WTC Building #7) didn’t fall down all by itself. Bld #7 was helped to fall into its footprint, with a demolition crew related to the same 5 dancing Israhelli Mossad Agents AKA: (squatters in Palestine stolen land), who were sent to NYC to video tape the planes hitting the WTC buildings. Then danced in celebration. Thus Operation “PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES”
Its easier to fool people, then convince them they ave been fooled. ~ Mark Twain
Pretty smart awake people here. so listen to what Jim in VA says. Spot on.
President Trump is a businessman, not a virologist. He is advised by professionals in that field and has to weigh his decision of what’s best for the country and its people based on their recommendations. I see the Governors of many states exercising far more draconian measures, which is within their position to do so, yet this article like so many others, blames President Trump. The bias shows.
I will say that personally I think this is all a plannedemic. Far too many things don’t add up. It’s the last gasp of the middle class. We’re being shown just who our overlords consider useless food eaters vs. necessary serfs. I personally believe that any job that puts food in your belly and a roof over you head is essential.
Media Hyped PANIC. Politician power grab.
Now you see how they control you. They shut down the world with FEAR. God’s people fear Not.
The Sheeple blindly follow LIARS, Fearmongers.
The 5G Beast System is Here.
Worship the Beast, Take the chip.
Or can choose to Worship and follow God of Jesus Christ.
No more fence sitters. Choice has always been yours.
Wish you All well.
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
go to YouTube:
Search:
* Dana Ashlie
* Deborah Tavares StopTheCrime . N e t
* Barry Trower 5g
* Rosa Koire Agenda 2030 exposed
* “Cutting Through the Matrix” with Alan Watt
They explain the False Narrative you live in better than I can.
May the God of Jesus Christ bless your family.
Going to places without censorship.
Going to a country that refuses to fall for the False Narrative Media Hyped Panic.
5G is a weapon
Fear is a weapon.
Weather is a weapon
Famine is a weapon
All Weapons of Control
A national conversation is needed about a restart. Which politician is going to be brave enough to lead? The main problem here is the MSM and Social media peer pressure.
Which prominent politician, doctor or scientist is going to hazard their career to lead the effort to end the shutdown? The real problem will be the MSM cancel culture and Social media peer pressure.
I completely agree. But sadly Mike Adams is right. Americans are getting the tyranny they deserve. They can’t even think like free people anymore.
you are wrong
A financial reset is in place. Soon money will go digital and with this shutdown it will be easier in the future to do again. Expect food riots as the delivery system degrades and riots in general when everybody gets antsy. Keep your toilet paper close and weapons loaded.
Fools!!!!! A fool says I’m not sick it’s all BS just like a fool says I’ve never had a house fire so I don’t need home insurance. so keyboard warrior – cancel you home auto and health insurance TODAY! Do it!!! After all. You don’t need it right??? You aren’t sick – you aren’t having a wreck and your house isn’t on fire so why have it??? RIGHT???!!! RIGHT!!! Do it or STFU
Since I am an opponent of fasists, I support ending the shut-down, but I have been self-isolating for over three years now, and this coronavirus hoax, and people’s opportunistic reactions to it leave me with the conclusion that I will continue self-isolation because of all of the psychopaths in America, who are in fact more uncivilized than wild animals, and even scare off wild animals just by being present.
Only humans develop nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, go to war, and attack their own species on such a mass scale.
This is beyond animialistic! It is nihilistic and cannibalistic! Ironically, Silicon Valley and the government do not feel compelled to censor polite war-mongers and mass mudrers, as long as they are polite about it.
wow no wonder america is number 1 in covid cases. its full of idiots who underestimate this virus
+1 hate to break it some people this virus is very serious. My sister in law Nikki is still in ICU on a ventilator. 40 years old very healthy non smoker gym rat and this has almost killed her
haha no wonder usa is number 1 in covid its full of idiots
“Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that once there are no new coronavirus cases or new deaths from COVID-19, social distancing can be relaxed.”
“President Trump has been promising the imminent arrival of a vaccine ”
“Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on March 18, 2020 during a “Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session” that he is working on a new, invisible “quantum dot tattoo” implant that will track who has been tested for COVID-19 and who has been vaccinated against it.”
“Watch this before taking the DNA Vaccine”
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm9R4iMBo6E
No matter what your political wing or social affiliations, no matter what your beliefs on the End Times, there is no realistic excuse, to take an indelible mark in your right hand or forehead, in order to buy or sell.
Maybe, Fauci just decides that there are no new cases, afterall, and social distancing has worked, without permanently damaging the economy.
Unfortunately we live in a “sue happy” society where people are always plotting ways to make an easy dollar, and have an attorney on speed dial.
Anyone with an IQ above an apple knows exactly what will happen if employees return to work and contract the virus.
There’s a reason why you can’t watch 5 minutes of television without seeing an ambulance chaser commercial.
We live in a “sue happy” society..
I share in your disdain for the perpetuated victimhood of everyone breathing in America.The most troubling aspect to me is the percentage of ambulance chasers comprising our supposed “leadership”.
The statement politics makes strange bed-fellows keeps getting proven to be true. The mortal enemy of TPTB went from being Russia to being the coronavirus, both of which led to the most unimaginable alliances and both based on complete bullshit.
When gig workers are spewing nonsense about the same enemy as the richest people in world history, it is time to wake up, and realize that you have been fooled twice!
I could not possibly say, shame on you to the gig workers for being fooled twice, but I will say shame on you to the Union thugs that are using you as tools to elevate themselves, will destroy your lives, reputations, and credibility, by psyopping you to use their ends justify the means mentallity, which unfortunately means that you are nothing but a means to an end for THEM, making all of you disspensible, disposable, and unnecessary to THEM in the broader scheme of things!
If you are an insta-cart shopper, are you able to work independently without insta-cart ? Did you sign a non-compete agreement with insta-cart? Hopefully you did not! Can you apply directly to the retailers as well as consumers? Can you hand out fliers that you are offering your services to consumers? These are questions that you should be asking yourselves.
For domestic workers, can you doccument notifications to labor organiers that you have appealed to for employer abuses that have not yeilded results in your favor within 30 days, a reasonable time frame? It seems that they are just stringing you along and forcing you to garnish a percentage of your wages to them. I am extremely suspicious of those labor organizers of migrant workers and highly suspect that they are involved in human trafficking and enslavement rings!
I have reason to believe that the CIA murdered my mother on 12/04/2015 since she worked for the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology, which Dirictor of The Institute Of National Health Dr. Anthony Fauci was a member of. My Mother was extremely intelligent, honest, and had a total disdain for corruption.
She was 70 years old and her mother lived to be 97 and her father to be 101. She was diagnosed with 4th stage lung cancer and died less than thirty days after diagnosis and receiving treatment. My brother went to pick her up to take her for chemo treatment and found her passed out on the floor, naked in a fetal position and she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
After my mother had passed away, I was in her condo getting it ready for sale and found several surgical masks in clothing drawers, which was odd, considering how organized my mother was, and she did not use them herself.
Shortly after that, I was driving to a meeting and a strange man was walking with a surgical mask and a radio-flyer wagon full of things which was covered with a tarp. I stopped and asked him if he was o.k. because it was something highly out of the ordinary for Ozaukee County. He asked if I could tell him how to get to Cedarburg. I asked him where in Cedarburg he was trying to get to, then the police pulled up and started talking to him, and I drove away. There was a surgical mask laying on the ground outside of the place where the meeting was after the meeting.
I believe that all of this must somehow be related and that they were worried that my Mother may have had knowledge and contacts which would have prevented this COVID-19 hype from happenning.
I think that the most tragic thing in all of this is that this is without question international psychological torture, terrorism, and child abuse orchestrated by the WHO and governments around the world, since children rely on information told to them by their parents who will be faced with the horror of lying to and terrifying their children, who will later find out that they lied, or telling them that the government and medical community is evil, sadistic and corrupt. That is unforgivable! It is sadistic as hell! They really must be removed from society! All of this to cover up their financial fraud?! So, you can understand why I believe that self-isolation is the best choice for me! Not to mention, that they are worried about how to prvide for them while being held hostages!
Israel locked down as soon as the virus appeared. They have mitigated it effects. NY was very late in responding to the shutdown and look at what is happening. Granted most people will not die or get sick, but those who do get really sick. This like the flu will establish itself in every state. It’s in the spread stage still. This will not go away. This virus was stolen from a lab outside of China by Chinese scientists who recognized the potential to weaponize this SARS virus and brought it back to China and they underestimated its virility and deadliness and it got out. Right now there are two strains of the virus “L” and “S”, one is more deadly than the other making a vaccine more difficult to create. This will change the world as we know it. We will have to learn to live with this and what will this look like is yet to be seen. But those who think we just drop the shutdown and we Americans will just push through this and one day it will go back to the good ole days are truly delusional ones.
Wait. Is this meant to be serious? This is the most asinine article I’ve read in some time. Tell me, even with this shut down, when was the last time you weren’t able to acquire what you need or even want? Even if your unable to go to your favorite store you can still order anything you want and have it shipped to you which actually save your time and money going from store to store looking for what you wanted. Want a car? Go buy one while many companies are doing insensitives to get sales.
To assume that this virus isn’t bad or the potential for the virus to get worse is willful ignorance. Like another commenter stated, go cancel your home owners insurance, car insurance, medical insurance, insurance on your favorite tv, don’t wear your seat belt while going for a drive. That’s what this lock down is. It’s essentially an insurance policy for what could happen. Don’t feel like you need to stay home? Go out and hopefully you don’t get sick, hopefully you don’t need an icu. Oh, don’t get into an accident while driving because the hospital may not be able to handle your case. And if you say that your area is fine and the local hospital is empty, great. Hope it stays that way but just because it’s not affecting you doesn’t mean it’s not affecting others.
Sure I believe that this virus was man made it’s hard to deny that. Did it originate in China? No. Doesn’t matter really. It’s here and going to last a long time. So suck it up buttercup. We all talk about homesteading and prepping until your unable to do what everyone else does and consume. Stay home, work on your garden, raise your animals and just chill the hell out.
To the editors. President Trump, whom you decry now as authoritarian, is a businessman, and is following the advice of the top virologists – who, by the way, are no fans of President Trump.
Create a scary narrative. Back it up with weak assumptions and wrong statistics. Scare folks that aren’t in medical fields. Allow power-hungry politicians to walk all over the founding documents. End up with an empty shell of the once-free nation created for American CITIZENS.
Thus the “enemies within” (thank you Michael Savage) have used this opportunity to smash a vibrant economy and take us closer to a socialist utopia. Critical thinkers know the socialist utopia is a fools errand that will never be attained.