The Science Can't Tell You What to Do When It's Snowing Outside

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"I'm not sure it's so surprising that we quote overreacted," he says. "It's almost as if anything less than an overreaction would be intolerable to the body politic" Politicians are followers, but this fact is combined with the myth that they are leaders,. And energy and praise for their great response to whatever.

Economist Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks about the pandemic with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Boudreaux argues that a perfect storm of factors created a huge overreaction, including unnecessary lockdowns that accomplished little at a very high cost in physical and emotional health. Instead, Boudreaux argues, we should have focused attention on the population most at risk of dying from COVID--the elderly and especially the elderly with co-morbidities. The conversation includes a discussion of externalities and the insights of Ronald Coase applied to the policies during the pandemic.