[zaroth]

The unemployment benefits go away faster than the jobs come back. And in the meantime the States go bankrupt and Federal debt balloons on the order of $10 trillion.

A wonder if a lot of people argue for lockdowns not just because they think it might be a worthy socioeconomic trade-off, but because they actually enjoy life better that way and aren’t personally being devastated by it. Similarly, people against lockdown could have just not been personally effected by COVID, or know anyone who has been.

Humans are particularly bad at balancing very large impact events (we tend to underestimate the big stuff and overestimate the small). I think it still very much remains to be seen which was the lesser evil — COVID or the response thereto.

[UncleOxidant]

> The unemployment benefits go away faster than the jobs come back

Sure, but it looks like the Democratic House and even the President want them to continue at least till year end.

> I think it still very much remains to be seen which was the lesser evil — COVID or the response thereto.

As an epidemiologist said months back (paraphrasing): "success in dealing with a pandemic will always be seen as having been an over-reaction after the fact."

[mistermann]

The problem with counterfactuals is, it very well may have been an overreaction. The truth is often not knowable.

If the above is the logic someone is using to sell me on an idea, my suspicion level increases.