A lot has been said about the harm to people resulting from government lockdowns imposed in the name of fighting COVID-19. However, lockdowns aren’t the only misguided policies that we’ve had and continue to endure because of this pandemic. In fact, we will suffer many tragic effects from the pandemic-induced changes long after lockdowns are lifted and the coronavirus is endemic.
The case against lockdowns is pretty well established. In fact, contrary to accusations issued by lockdown advocates, one doesn’t have to believe that COVID-19 isn’t a serious disease to oppose lockdowns. Nor does one have to make the claim that doing nothing would have worked wonders in controlling this nasty virus. All you have to show is that lockdowns do not control the spread of the virus any better than less-draconian alternatives. In fact, when all costs are considered, such as the short- and long-term health, educational and psychological harms the lockdowns caused, their costs far exceed their benefits.
It’s also hard to avoid the label of tyrannical policy today when still talking about lockdowns a year into this pandemic. Many academic studies about their lack of effectiveness and enormous evidence of their harms are available, yet lockdowns aren’t fully lifted, and many schools still aren’t opened. It’s particularly frustrating since it has become obvious that those protesting the lifting of these policies—aside from the politicians who directly or indirectly benefit from them—are the wealthier and politically connected people who are less affected by lockdowns than most.
However, there are other terrible consequences of the pandemic response that we’ll have to live with long after the lockdowns are lifted. The main one is the utterly insane expansion of federal spending. It’s traditional for the federal government to expand during emergencies. Yet the size of the response this time around is both unprecedented and unwarranted. Uncle Sam’s $6 trillion (so far) in COVID-19 relief spending can’t be justified based on the GDP loss, on wage and salary losses, or on any other measures.