CHICAGO—A recent commentary in The Wall Street Journal exposes the dark hole into which conservative economic thinking has sunk since the pinnacle of its influence in the 1980s. Economists Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J.
“ Mulligan and Philipson are accomplished economists. It is mysterious that they take the worst market failure in decades as an opportunity for arguing that markets solve the problems created by government. ”Mulligan and Philipson then argue that it was private enterprise that “quickly controlled” the pandemic , even though the virus is still running rampant. “Getting the government out of the way was essential,” they write. That was “the goal of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed.
Market incentives to harm others A market failure occurs whenever a private agent’s actions cause social costs that exceed private costs. Such instances are ubiquitous. When people are rational and amoral , they have every incentive to dump waste in rivers, drive faster than is safe for pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers, and spread contagious diseases to others if they feel well enough to go out.
Could this really be what Mulligan and Philipson advocate? Clearly, the only solution to government failure is better government policy, not no government policy. The elimination of government involvement in vaccine research—both to promote and regulate it—would be disastrous. In a remarkable statement, Mulligan and Philipson write that, “Politicians craft tax policy to favor certain interest groups, but the private sector corrects such failures by substituting to less-taxed activities.” This, apparently, is another way that “markets” save us from “government failure.”
Government programs and interventions such as mask mandates have helped mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic. Trump’s major achievement was using government to create the conditions for rapid vaccine development; his major failure was not going further and undermining efforts by state and local governments to control the pandemic.
I thought Pfizer didn’t take government money to develop their vaccine.
In a crisis, throwing public money at a problem (while jumping on the investment bandwagon) and making dreadful policy are what conservatives do best. Meanwhile the “experts” get on with their public duty and come up with the solutions. It was ever thus.
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These companies were ASKED to stop creating their own products and to help make PPP, masks and ventilators for the population in a crisis. They were paid for their work. This was not the same as COVID “relief.” Nice spin, though.
This government is the pandemic!!
Meanwhile the vax is totally toxic
Robert kadlec is a criminal who should have never been involved
The government created the PLAN Demic. Get your BS and get outta here.
Pfizer didn't take government money and Dolly Parton contributed 1 million dollars for the development of Moderna.
Oh, Jaba the Prez was so groovy.
But... It could have been immeasurably better if our leaders had acknowledged it right from the start, instead of being in denial so as not to hurt themselves politically
Suuuuuure
Well, that's one of the purposes of government, isn't it.
To think where we might be today with masks and without fake Fox.
At this point, these are all our 'journalists'
I buy the print WSJ 1-2x a week but I never ever ever read the opinions because they are nutters
Operation warp speed relied upon the removal of draconian government regulation and approval processes but you do you.
wow
If trump wasn’t in office, there wouldn’t be a pandemic. Few will get this.
Not just economic thinking. They have everything in a drainage. Literally everything. Every where else, there are fringes. But in US, thats the majority.
🤮
that definitely is an opinion alright
this is terrible news
Not him
Agreed on Warp Speed. How about the fact that 200,000 - 300,000 American lives could have been saved if one fucking asshole hadn’t politicized MASKS. Oops
Summary: Unbacked opinion 1 - Unbacked opinion 2 - Unbacked opinion 3 - Unbacked opinion 4 - Unbacked opinion 5 - Unbacked opinion 6... SCIENCE!! 🤦♂️
It’s just an opinion
And if all the Trump supporters had actually taken it we could have avoided this delta wave of hospitalization and death
Maybe but cases are spiking again because people on both sides of the idiocy campaign are crapping on vaccines as a way to mitigate the spread: idiots who believe Q et al & idiots who are Q et al.
I
Hey I doubt it
Or it could be like the Middle East where they did nothing and no one is sick. How many photos of 800 Afghanis stuffed in a C17 with not one mask did the press release? GTFOH with that government propaganda.
That’s not even an opinion it’s facts.
nice