We Didn't Close Schools, Is That a Good Idea?

6min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

We basically took 15 months and shoved people into their caves, their homes on Zoom. We don't close schools, at least for now. And then the next set of losses and costs of this policy are the more interesting ones because they are the hardest to see. They're the inability to dance at the wedding. It's the inability to see someone smile when you're having a tough day because they're wearing a mask. The inability to be a human being. If it had been a real plague, like the bubonic plague or the black plague, maybe that would have been a good idea.

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.