The economy is in trouble because of the virus, not because of lockdowns or following advice of medical experts.
People scared to die or spread a viral infection to loved ones => reduction in eating out, going to concerts, or traveling => major economic pain for the service industry.
Obviously the voluntary actions people are taking is having an effect on the economy. But when you declare that entire sections of the economy are illegal ("non-essential"), then this has an even bigger impact. Now businesses that could have tried to stay open with certain precautions are simply out of business. This puts even more people out of work.
Also, the voluntary actions people are taking are affected by how they see this pandemic, which of course are in turn heavily affected by media reporting (and also how other countries have reacted).
The restaurant industry would be wise to note that the steep decline in customers preceded the lockdowns, and are being very slow to tick back up in states that have lifted theirs.
People like me stopped going to restaurants well before governors were even seriously talking about lockdowns, and won't be going back for many months, if not many years.
That said, at least in the US, there are quite a lot of people that will go back as soon as lockdowns end. And in-person service is a big deal, because people dining in drink a lot of booze, which is a big moneymaker. If I ran a restaurant, I'd be praying for this moment.
A dataset showing that restaurants had zero customers during lockdowns can't possibly be accurate, since they're still open for takeout. I'm sure there's some real trend being exhibited here, but how do we know people aren't just not using OpenTable?
Government orders businesses to close => restaurants, concerts, stores are closed => people can't eat out, go to concerts, buy stuff => major economic pain for the service industry
Your comment is funny because in essence, it's kind of true. Economy only works as long as people keep buying (heh) into the idea. I agree that the form of our economy can change substantially but human cooperation via barter and trade is a sound institution on this Earth, and this pandemic has shown that if people are unhappy with circumstances, they will simply pretend as if everything's fine.
Makes me imagine an "end to civilization" where there is a large contingent of folks pining to return to normalcy while the world literally burns.
Sure, that's fair, but I think there's reason for optimism this time. Many counties are actually opening faster than they'd planned at the beginning of the month.