Covid

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Donna Brazile: It's wrong to even think about the factory. She says that once you say it's only the so-called polluter, the emitter who is at fault, and it's not a joint problem, you're giving license to the people who live nearby to impose costs on others. "When you start to think about it in the different range of costs and benefits, you start to realize it's more complicated"

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.