Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has invited people around the world to take a sober approach to life and social relations. But it has also spread a potentially worse contagion throughout society: panic.
At the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, James Agresti dispenses the cold facts about COVID-19. Every article written by Agresti, the president of Just Facts, provides verifiable, documented data without political spin. This article is no exception.
At the end of the article, Agresti notes the economic dangers the virus poses to the West:
There are, however, mortal dangers in overreacting, because measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 often have economic impacts that can cost lives. As detailed in the textbook Macroeconomics for Today, countries with low economic growth “are less able to satisfy basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, education, and health.” These hazards can manifest quickly and over extended periods of time.
Economic growth flows from a free economy.
As I wrote in a recent article on coronavirus for FEE.org, socialism produces economic “inefficiency, a sterile-sounding word until it means that Americans will lose their lives”:
The basic economic truth that competition improves results lies at the heart of all human endeavor. The enormity of the coronavirus has driven this truth home in grim and unforgettable ways. It should never again be lost on those of us who imitate the Great Physician in longing to serve and save the least of these, our brothers and sisters.
Read his informative article on coronavirus here.
Read my full article at FEE.org here.
(Photo credit: Chad Davis. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
