I mentioned Michigan in the title because I live there but that question can be asked of many other states in this country who have shut down their economies also. I could see some states shutting down for maybe 2 weeks so that a massive campaign to produce testing kits could get under way. But, thanks to government regulations, that production didn't happen.
Instead, some governors and mayors decided to quarantine everyone regardless of health status. In doing so they shut down about 80% of their state's economies on the seeming premise that a fully running economy is a nonessential. The essential then was to prevent hospitals from being over whelmed, not fighting the virus. For this they locked down their states.
An economy is the life blood of a society. It is individuals living, trading, sustaining and even enhancing their lives. To be prosperous an economy must have a free marketplace. In a free market people are free to make a dollar satisfying the wants and needs of others. No physical force is involved. Everything is voluntary
A beautiful feature is that people are free to compete with each other to see who can best serve those wants/needs of other's. It is the kind of pro-freedom, pro-prosperity, pro-human flourishing system that you'd think everyone would be trying to create. So why are state governments trying to shut them down? Do they really think a state's marketplace is a nonessential?
Some of these governors and mayors have come out with lists of what they call essential and nonessential jobs. They call them services. Police, fire and health care jobs are considered essential while most others are deemed nonessential. But essential to whom and for what purpose?
Every job out there, no matter how mundane or menial, is serving some person's life. That job is essential to that person's life. To designate it as nonessential is to regard his life as nonessential. Yet that's what these politicians do.
Here in Michigan our Governor Gretchen Whitmer says we can't buy seeds to plant in our own back yards. But we can go to party stores and buy booze and lottery tickets. Yep! We must not sacrifice the State's income, just our own.
Our Governor is substituting her judgement for that of her constituents in area's that have little or nothing to do with fighting the virus. She wants to decide what we should buy and not buy. What we should have access to and not. It's what dictators and their wannabes do.
Governor Whitmer should immediately throw open Michigan's enormously productive market place and watch the explosion of life saving personal protection equipment (PPEs) and other medical equipment. (private volunteers are already doing this.) But by prolonging this lock down she is guaranteeing a second wave in the winter when the virus will come back.
Today, too many people don't understand what a free market is supposed to be free from. The answer of course is the initiatory--starting--of the use of force by other men, whether by criminals or government regulations. People haven't seen the difference between laws that protect rights which are based on the presumption of innocence and regulations which are all based on the presumption of guilt.
But we citizens and our recent family ancestors have brought much of this on ourselves. We and they have repeatedly elected politicians who promised to invest in health care, or more fair care or affordable care etc.
We did not notice that politics is the management of force and medicine is the management of health and to combine the two is to force health care to be in service to politicians. And that is what we see today.
If you had just come down with a new disease wouldn't you want to have hundreds of testing labs and diagnostic clinics going full blast on finding a cure? So why did we limit our chances to two government regulators--the CDC and FDA--from whom they all have to get permission to budge?
President Reagan promised to shut down the Dept of Education. He didn't. In 2016 Sen Ted Cruz promised to eliminate 5 regulatory agencies. He lost to Trump. Trump has promised to "drain the swamp." But he has not eliminated one agency that I can see.
We have to search for candidates that will start shutting down these regulatory agencies. We have to do it because it looks like Trump isn't going to. He's been busy fighting impeachment and enormous obstructionism by Democrats.We have to put medicine back in the hands of doctors and health scientists.
Instead, some governors and mayors decided to quarantine everyone regardless of health status. In doing so they shut down about 80% of their state's economies on the seeming premise that a fully running economy is a nonessential. The essential then was to prevent hospitals from being over whelmed, not fighting the virus. For this they locked down their states.
An economy is the life blood of a society. It is individuals living, trading, sustaining and even enhancing their lives. To be prosperous an economy must have a free marketplace. In a free market people are free to make a dollar satisfying the wants and needs of others. No physical force is involved. Everything is voluntary
A beautiful feature is that people are free to compete with each other to see who can best serve those wants/needs of other's. It is the kind of pro-freedom, pro-prosperity, pro-human flourishing system that you'd think everyone would be trying to create. So why are state governments trying to shut them down? Do they really think a state's marketplace is a nonessential?
Some of these governors and mayors have come out with lists of what they call essential and nonessential jobs. They call them services. Police, fire and health care jobs are considered essential while most others are deemed nonessential. But essential to whom and for what purpose?
Every job out there, no matter how mundane or menial, is serving some person's life. That job is essential to that person's life. To designate it as nonessential is to regard his life as nonessential. Yet that's what these politicians do.
Here in Michigan our Governor Gretchen Whitmer says we can't buy seeds to plant in our own back yards. But we can go to party stores and buy booze and lottery tickets. Yep! We must not sacrifice the State's income, just our own.
Our Governor is substituting her judgement for that of her constituents in area's that have little or nothing to do with fighting the virus. She wants to decide what we should buy and not buy. What we should have access to and not. It's what dictators and their wannabes do.
Governor Whitmer should immediately throw open Michigan's enormously productive market place and watch the explosion of life saving personal protection equipment (PPEs) and other medical equipment. (private volunteers are already doing this.) But by prolonging this lock down she is guaranteeing a second wave in the winter when the virus will come back.
Today, too many people don't understand what a free market is supposed to be free from. The answer of course is the initiatory--starting--of the use of force by other men, whether by criminals or government regulations. People haven't seen the difference between laws that protect rights which are based on the presumption of innocence and regulations which are all based on the presumption of guilt.
But we citizens and our recent family ancestors have brought much of this on ourselves. We and they have repeatedly elected politicians who promised to invest in health care, or more fair care or affordable care etc.
We did not notice that politics is the management of force and medicine is the management of health and to combine the two is to force health care to be in service to politicians. And that is what we see today.
If you had just come down with a new disease wouldn't you want to have hundreds of testing labs and diagnostic clinics going full blast on finding a cure? So why did we limit our chances to two government regulators--the CDC and FDA--from whom they all have to get permission to budge?
President Reagan promised to shut down the Dept of Education. He didn't. In 2016 Sen Ted Cruz promised to eliminate 5 regulatory agencies. He lost to Trump. Trump has promised to "drain the swamp." But he has not eliminated one agency that I can see.
We have to search for candidates that will start shutting down these regulatory agencies. We have to do it because it looks like Trump isn't going to. He's been busy fighting impeachment and enormous obstructionism by Democrats.We have to put medicine back in the hands of doctors and health scientists.
1 comment:
Mike, I enjoyed this article. I agree with you that Governor Whitmer is destroying our Michigan economy. I say that she take a 50% cut in pay while we are all without our job pay due to her never ending economy shutdown. That's fair. Since when does she dictate if we can buy seeds, a U.S. flag, or paint deeming these things not an essential need. Yet she says we can buy marijuana, alcohol, lotto tickets, or get an abortion because these are essential needs. She is delusional. Catherine
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