Tweet [1]
James Otteson makes the case that business is honorable and should be taught – and recognized – as such [2]. A slice (which rightly implies that those who advocate tariffs and subsidies are advocates of dishonorable practices):
Cooperative exchange is the foundation of honorable business. Honorable business thus calls on businesspeople to seek ways to benefit themselves only by benefiting others—which means, in essence, that they must put others’ needs, desires, and well-being on par with their own. The honorable businessperson accordingly rejects, on principle, engaging in extractive activity that harms others or that benefits himself at others’ expense. Then he actively searches out cooperative ways he can use his talents, skills, and expertise to generate value for others and to contribute, even if only in a small way, to their well-being—and, ultimately, to their eudaimonia.
Max Gulker warns against micromanagement by the state of the economy’s reopening [3]. A slice:
Whether managed step-by-step or allowed to happen all at once, U.S. businesses will be reopening their doors to an entirely new reality. The process of finding a sustainable and prosperous normal will be messy and involve too much suffering even at its best. But regulations meant to ease the country back to work are more likely to prevent businesses from engaging in an informative discovery process through competition and making the small intuitive adjustments impossible to implement from the top down. Most states, including AIER’s home of Massachusetts, appear to be heading down this dangerous road.
Purdue University president Mitch Daniels offers up in today’s Washington Post a much-need dose of perspective and good sense [4]. A slice:
The companion discovery is that this bug, so risky in one segment of the population, poses a near-zero risk to young people. Among covid-19 deaths, 99.9 percent have occurred outside the 15-to-24 age group [5]; the survival rate [6] in the 20-to-29 age bracket is 99.99 percent [7]. Even assuming the United States eventually reaches 150,000 total fatalities, covid-19 as a risk to the young will rank [8] way below accidents, cancer, heart disease and suicide. In fact, it won’t even make the top 10.
And here’s Jeffrey Singer, MD’s, coronavirus tale [9].