The Bionic Mosquito excoriates an economist, I presume a Keynsian, Marxist or some other species of varmint, named John Mauldin. Said quack was among those urging totalitarianism as an antidote to that oh-so-lethal,-oh-so-special flu, COVID19. And the Mosquito does his usual able job, so I hope he’ll pardon my tossing in my two cents. Especially because when Mauldin writes, “With the benefit of hindsight, I am sure that we would’ve made different choices in terms of our response to the disease,” the Mosquito stings him:
What would these different responses include? Don’t shut down the economy? Don’t add trillions in new debt? Don’t destroy hundreds of thousands of small business? Don’t increase the suicide rate? Don’t decrease the number of doctors’ visits for cancer screenings, heart disease, etc.? Nope, none of these:
[Maudlin writes:] It would’ve been nice to have a stockpile of N95 masks and other PPE gear.
Let me pursue a different tack: emergencies and crises are precisely why we have principles. They guide us in new or frightening circumstances when we wonder how to respond. Among the many principles that should have been at the forefront last March were such constitutional ones as, “Unaccountable ‘public health’ bureaucrats may not order us around,” and “Freedom means each American decides for himself how best to defend his family from this new malady.” Or how about, “Forcing people to wear masks and anti-social distance and isolate themselves from their relatives in nursing homes is as wrong as forcing them not to” and “To secure these rights—not to ‘protect the public health’—governments are instituted among men…”
As more of the damage Our Rulers inflicted this year becomes terrifyingly clear, Mauldin is just one of the thousands who will justify it by sighing, “Oh, if only we’d known then what we do now…”
Balderash and baloney.
Don’t let them get away it.
2:58 pm on September 17, 2020
