Hawkeye wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:50 pm
The draconian Covid response certainly did help to make gasoline more expensive which is what people like Gunnar have wanted all along.
I don't think Trump's action plan issued to Governors was draconian. It was a bit bizarre that he decided to criticize Governors for following it, beginning just days after issuing it, but draconian? Meh.
Seriously though... I think with the series of ball fumbling, poor communication, political gambling, mixed messaging, and PR gaffs galore, from the WHO all the way down to local health districts; there's plenty of introspective mistakes to be carried by all (although the likelihood of us all being able to effectively implement the lessons of those mistakes for inevitable future global pandemics is likely low).
I very much doubt anyone had negative consequences as the desired result in any of it. No one (at least I hope no one) wanted economic suffering, or death, or high prices, or overcrowded hospitals, or [insert thing we ended up seeing, if only transiently in some instances].
There were certainly people who saw negative consequences as acceptable outcomes for other attempted goals, but I don't believe those negative consequences were anyone's end goal or even hopeful goal. At least no one in the position of policy maker, that is.
Evil geniuses are much less rare than well-intentioned people who misjudge things, or make mistakes without being able to see just how complicated things are and how people and markets will respond. The world is messy when medical ethics, economics, politics, global policy, international relations, philosophy, and history all have to come together in an attempt to do the most good while mitigating the most harm (both short term and long term). Theory, practicality, and reality sometimes come together like mint and citrus.