The Years of Covid – The Seen and the Unseen

When thinking about the consequences of the pandemic's government actions, I couldn't help but think about Bastiat's famous "seen and unseen" phrase.

To assess a certain measure, one needs to look at both the direct and indirect effects: the short-term, easily visible consequences and the longer-term, less obvious ones. The visible ones are more readily observed and can gain elections, but the less visible ones are almost always more significant in the longer run.

Shutting down cities, restraining travel, and in general reducing the number of human contacts in all sorts of ways - in brief, upending the regular operation of society might extend some lives. However, as I've hopefully managed to show, at a much higher overall cost, even in the short term.

I'm not even considering whether it's morally right for a government to restrain "its" citizens that way or whether lockdowns have an immediate effect on reducing the number of hospitalizations. Those are valid questions in themselves.

(Originally written on the 2nd of April, 2021)