In the 1930s, first Hoover then Roosevelt tried to fix the economy that would have fixed itself if it had been left alone, which was the lesson decidedly not learned from the depression of 1920-21 and the Panics of the 19th century. If it had been left to recover on its own from federal reserve meddling, there might have been a chance the meddler would have been shut down.
But really, there was no chance. Anyone who understands the FED’s purpose — keeping the biggest banks solvent through counterfeiting — knows repealing the law that established it was not a thinkable option, given the corrupt powers that supported it.
So the FED, supercharged after FDR made owning gold coins a felony, remained on the scene and advanced its career as an untouchable counterfeiter, creating a legacy of inflation, a policy indispensable to a welfare/warfare/surveillance state. Big, suffocating government doesn’t thrive on direct theft (legislated taxation) alone.
State growth also creates connections with individuals and organizations not formally a part of the State apparatus. It has a name: Crony capitalism. Since the State deals with others by force and thrives within its sphere of influence by bestowing favors, there are always people seeking privileges, such as protection from competition, tax breaks, or monetary outlays (bailouts). In return, the State receives support in the form of political endorsements, election donations, votes, and marginalizing the views of those opposed to State policies or the State itself.
Any crisis arriving on the scene, whether State-caused or natural, is subject to State handling. People expect the State to “Do something,” and it does. Today, the State is doing plenty about the coronavirus, and no surprise, it is creating a social catastrophe.
What hath the State wrought?
It’s a challenge to document 2020’s outburst of tyranny when so many levels of government are contributing to the mayhem, but here are a few:
(1) States ordering “non-essential” businesses to close, while letting “essential” businesses remain open. If a business weren’t essential it wouldn’t be doing business. Fortunately, some business owners are at least defying the orders.
(2) With so many small businesses shut down and employees furloughed or fired, the federal government turned to its counterfeiter to ease their pain — short term relief only, of course. Most Americans aren’t complaining, but they will when they’re greeted with “monumental tax increases” that could eventually wipe out the middle class. But the CARES act is rarely presented in such truthful terms. Instead, the government with its astronomical debt somehow found $2.2 trillion in its back pocket it had apparently forgotten about, so the Treasury (not the FED) passed it out to the people, including thousands of foreign workers living overseas. Money is truly no object when it’s controlled by the government and its printing press sidekick.
(3) Stay-at-home orders for everyone, even after the virus has shown an affinity for the elderly with existing medical problems and almost no concern for healthy people under 30. Lockdowns prevent herd immunity and delay recovery. People jailed in their homes get depressed, divorced, commit suicide, abuse spouses and children, drink too much, and fail to care for other health issues. They also tend to stay unemployed if they can’t work from home. The State knows all this.
(4) Mask confusion. State health authorities saying early on that masks aren’t needed for everyday activities then reversing themselves. Studies and demonstrations showing the futility of masks, along with their numerous downsides, have yet to remove the mandates.
(5) Making people afraid to get too close to one another. We must keep at least six feet apart (unless you’re rioting for a leftist cause). States have tried hard to outlaw hugs. We can find ludicrous though often creative ways some people circumvent normal hugging.
(6) Outlawing or restricting outdoor recreational activities. Remember the video of the cop chasing a lone jogger off the beach? Or the young mother who was tasered and arrested for not wearing a mask while watching her middle school son play football?
(7) Hobbling professional sports. Fake fans in the seats, along with crowd noises lifted from a video game. No tailgating. Announcers and commentators broadcasting remotely or spread far apart. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell fining two head coaches $100,000 apiece for not wearing masks properly on the sidelines. And also fining their teams $250,000 apiece.
(8) Canceling the NCAA basketball tournaments for both men and women. At first canceling, then allowing under restrictions, the college football season. Two major conferences have yet to begin play. TV viewers are seeing cheerleaders with masks strapped to their faces cheering from the stands or from the sidelines, with gaping holes in the bleachers where fans normally sit. Meanwhile, amid all the PC caution, the players engage in a rough contact sport on the field. But even under duress the free market comes through:
At LSU last week, fans were able to purchase a cut out of themselves to be placed in the stands where 82,000 empty seats looked on. The cost? $50.
Depressing, but it’s a choice and a way for the school to recover a bit of lost revenue.
(9) Criminally, the suppression and in some cases outlawing of a demonstrably effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2, hydroxychloroquine. The government has never before “restricted physicians from prescribing an FDA approved medication,” according to America’s Frontline Doctors.
Santa Monica cardiologist Dr. Dan Wohlgelernter said during a June 18 interview:
This is an FDA approved drug for 65 years; it’s generic, cheap, widely available. We give it to pregnant women, to breastfeeding women, to elderly patients, to patients who are immune-compromised…
Initially, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for HCQ, and CQ but then later revoked it. During the brief period under the EUA the “strategic national stockpile” amassed 63 million doses of HCQ. Mylan and Novartis donated millions of doses to the stockpile, with Bayer kicking in another two million doses of CQ. Trump called it a game-changer on March 21 and that changed the game. On June 15 the FDA revoked EUA, saying:
Specifically, FDA has determined that CQ and HCQ are unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 for the authorized uses in the EUA. Additionally, in light of ongoing serious cardiac adverse events and other serious side effects, the known and potential benefits of CQ and HCQ no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the authorized use. This warrants revocation of the EUA for HCQ and CQ for the treatment of COVID-19.
Most states had already placed restrictions for its use as a prophylactic and by limiting prescriptions to two weeks with no refills.
Twenty-year emergency room physician Dr. Simone Gold was fired for appearing in a video in which she advocated HCQ for use against COVID-19. The video, which went viral, was removed from social media. Her employer threatened to fire her colleagues if she didn’t go quietly.
An ongoing evaluation of HCQ called HCQTrial, done anonymously by PhD researchers and scientists under the name @CovidAnalysis (to avoid another “Simone Gold” incident), presents findings for countries that do or do not use HCQ. As the chart shows, early treatment makes a big difference, and countries using HCQ show far lower mortality rates.
I’ll let the reader decide whether the war on HCQ is at all related to the Left’s war on Trump and the lucrative revenue stream from government sponsorship of a rushed-to-market vaccine.
(10) If the State is concerned with our health, why aren’t their spokespeople urging us to boost our immune systems? That’s our first line of defense against any infectious disease, along with common sense. Why aren’t they now, in October, urging us to load up on vitamins D3, K2, and C especially, along with zinc? Why aren’t they classifying HCQ as an OTC drug as it is in many countries, to be used as a prophylactic?
Conclusion
In most circles the fact of government’s necessity is never mentioned but always assumed. Thus, the push for reforms, to get better people in positions of authority, to pass needed legislation on top of the mountains that already exist. Always — work within the system. Don’t rock the boat. Our foundations are still solid. Rarely does anyone call into question the need for government-as-we-know-it — the State.
Does the State’s virus management give you confidence it’s acting in your best interest? For me, it’s like something out of Orwell or Nazi Germany.
Without the State there would be chaos, we’re told. What do we have today, if not chaos? I haven’t even mentioned the riots going on, where people defending themselves are charged with serious crimes. The rioters hate the police, and seeing the police stand down, peaceful people now fear for their lives and load up on guns.
And now we’re being hit with black lives matter and only black lives matter. It is no longer a fringe movement. It exists virtually unchallenged. No one, no matter their race, can live long under that slogan.
We already have a government we can live with. It’s called the free market but it’s been sabotaged by the State. It’s locked down, meaning not allowed to operate. We need to set it free.
I’ve written a short book about it and produced a 10-minute video explaining it.
If you, thoughtful reader, want a stateless free market you must tell the world you want it. At the end of the video I ask you to vote by giving the video a thumbs up or down. I urge you to give it a thumbs up. Without your affirmation the stateless free market will forever remain a fantasy and today’s nightmare will only get worse.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
The post The One Lockdown That’s Killing Us All appeared first on LewRockwell.
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