{"id":83735,"date":"2020-03-20T20:38:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T02:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=83735"},"modified":"2020-03-22T20:54:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T02:54:59","slug":"free-market-latter-day-saint-and-other-reactions-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/free-market-latter-day-saint-and-other-reactions-to-covid-19.html","title":{"rendered":"Free Market, Latter-day Saint, and Other Reactions to COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
Reynolds Mountain, at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana. \u00a0This photo was taken before the advent of the coronavirus and COVID-19. \u00a0I thought it looked cheery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tyler Moulton<\/a> kindly called my attention to the second of the two articles immediately below and then, from it, I found the first of the pair. \u00a0They\u2019re longish, but they\u2019re really interesting and thought-provoking and I would love to hear responses to them from readers who know more about medicine and public health issues than I do. \u00a0(Heck, given my notorious hostility toward science \u2014 see, for that, the final portion of \u201cCoronavirus presents millennials with a generational moment\u201d<\/a> \u2014\u00a0why would I even want<\/em> to know anything about those subjects?)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCoronavirus: Why You Must Act Now: Politicians, Community Leaders and Business Leaders: What Should You Do and When?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCoronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance: What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I also found this article of interest:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Doctor\u2019s Assessment of the COVID-19 Outbreak:\u00a0It is a serious disease, and we should treat it like one. But the shutdown approach may be imperfect.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few days ago, I posted a link to this article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere Is No Such Thing as Price Gouging:\u00a0Denying that a thing is worth what another person is willing to pay for it is like denying gravity.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quite predictably \u2014 although I offered no commentary on the article at all, neither positive nor negative \u2014 it garnered outraged denunciations of my greed and cruelty from the usual anonymous suspects. \u00a0So I hereby compound my crime by sharing yet another link to an article making a similar point:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia:\u00a0Two Cheers for \u2018Price Gouging\u2019:\u00a0The state has set up an anti-gouging hotline and has threatened to prosecute businesses, but this approach only ensures scarcity.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve explained many times that I\u2019m a political conservative with strong libertarian leanings on economic issues. \u00a0So this article caught my attention:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Free-Market Economist\u2019s Thoughts on Coronavirus:\u00a0What answers can free-market thinking offer in the face of COVID-19?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not, though, simply an avaricious economic buccaneer seeking to exploit the poor and the helpless. \u00a0Do I contradict myself? \u00a0No, actually and with apologies to Walt Whitman, I don\u2019t. \u00a0Still, though, I do contain multitudes! \u00a0(It\u2019s my belief in freedom that allows me to do so.) \u00a0 So here\u2019s an article of a rather different kind:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMeet the Americans who are canceling everything but kindness:\u00a0Forget the toilet paper wars and price gouging. Let us count the ways COVID-19 is bringing out the best in Americans.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, to finish things up here, I offer an article with a focus on the Latter-day Saints from The Atlantic<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Stockpile of Food in My Garage: As I hunker down at home with my family amid a global pandemic, I have a new appreciation for a strange religious tradition.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Tyler Moulton kindly called my attention to the second of the two articles immediately below and then, from it, I found the first of the pair. \u00a0They\u2019re longish, but they\u2019re really interesting and thought-provoking and I would love to hear responses to them from readers who know more about medicine and public health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,8031,9108,9194,7054,1812,1815,8256,55,1667,9104,9197],"class_list":["post-83735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-food-storage","tag-free-market","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-libertarian","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-pandemic","tag-price-gouging"],"yoast_head":"\nFree Market, 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