Topic: Public Choice and Public Policy

Books, Crisis, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Don’t Fear the Reaper: A Review of The Plague Cycle by Charles Kenny

– January 21, 2021

“The Plague Cycle is an excellent treatment on the history of infectious diseases and the complex relationship with human societies, and it offers new ways to think about disease prevention going forward. Do pick it up with those reasons in mind, not just because of the implications for Covid-19.” ~ Byron B. Carson III

Crisis, Government, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

The Empirical Case for a Mask Mandate Lacks Scientific Grounding

– January 19, 2021

“Americans rapidly adopted masks last summer and have continued to use them at consistently high rates ever since. Adding a new national mask mandate on top of this practice will bring little if any additional benefit to what voluntary adoption already achieved, though it may foster a false hope in the exaggerated claims of an obsolete and erroneous model.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Should the US Have Been More like Pacific Countries?

– January 5, 2021

“Those wishing to use Australia as a ‘model’ for the United States would be wise to investigate other causes besides lockdowns that explain their differences. They may also soon find that some of those causes are not only incapable of being replicated elsewhere – they also defy the same experts’ pretenses of actually controlling what they imagine they can design through a centrally planned suite of restrictive lockdowns.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Lockdowns are Killing Young Adults

– January 1, 2021

“Like so many instances before, another top medical journal has now contributed to the widespread dissemination of incomplete and misleading scientific inferences. Our news media then predictably seized on the same faulty conclusions and shoehorned them into a political narrative that confirmed their own pro-lockdown ideological commitments.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Twelve Times the Lockdowners Were Wrong

– December 26, 2020

“This has been a year of astonishing policy failure. We are surrounded by devastation conceived and cheered by intellectuals and their political handmaidens. We trusted these people with our lives and liberties and here is what they did with that trust.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Economic Education, Government, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Drink Your Coffee, Be Considerate, and Fight Covid-19

– December 25, 2020

“Lockdowns are a blunt policy instrument typical of government officials who can only pretend to know how individuals make choices and the tradeoffs they face. However, we can still be considerate of the choices people make and fight Covid-19.” ~ Byron Carson

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy, Public Choice and Public Policy

So Much for the “Strawman” of Lockdowns

– November 2, 2020

“Similar returns to lockdown are being actively discussed at the national level across Europe, and on a regional basis in the United States. The much-derided ‘straw man’ of renewed lockdowns, it would appear, has already sprung to life.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Media, Public Choice and Public Policy

The Strange Advent of Lockdown Denialism

– October 20, 2020

“As the latest repackaging of this epidemiological bill of goods gains traction in our public discourse, the world has but one viable pathway out of the present social, economic, and medical hellscape. And that is to meet the lockdowners with a resounding no.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Crisis, Healthcare, International, Public Choice and Public Policy

How the Virus Penetrated Fortress New Zealand

– August 28, 2020

“Far from adopting this strategy as a model, the world must avoid the corner of perpetual recurring lockdowns in which New Zealand now finds itself. And New Zealand’s government would be wise to drop the hubristic pretensions of commanding and controlling a virus through medieval self-isolation, seeking instead an alternative strategy that is robust to unexpected setbacks and equipped for long-run recovery.” ~ Phillip Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Healthcare, Public Choice and Public Policy

Fact-Checking Fauci

– August 10, 2020

“The pro-lockdown position favored by Fauci and several US media outlets has become a matter of ideological commitment. Whether they are doing so to rationalize the costs we have already incurred from this disastrous approach or to further politicize the pandemic response for a variety of electoral and partisan purposes, they have embraced a pro-lockdown stance that is unchained from any evidence or clear data.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Crisis, Economic Trends, Public Choice and Public Policy

Longer Lockdowns Associated with Much Worse Economic Outcomes

– August 1, 2020

“It’s obvious that if you restrict and ban certain businesses, they will suffer for it. Some business owners who made it through the first wave of lockdowns are saying their businesses won’t be able to survive another. This isn’t rocket science.” ~Abigail Devereaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, Public Choice and Public Policy

Evolutionary Failure: When Mass Psychology is like a Negative Technology Shock

– July 30, 2020

“This general acceptance of a fear of others that separates us from each other exacerbates all our worst proclivities and maximizes the economic destruction of the pandemic. We need to return to a robust market to preserve the division of labor. Perhaps you think this is an exaggeration, and we hope you are right, but we also hope you will join us in asking for some moderation in the panic around the new virus.” Diana & Michael Thomas