How To Be A Libertarian In A Pandemic
Checking in on how libertarians are grappling with the largely state-powered response to the coronavirus outbreak
“Depending on the time of day that you catch me, I’m either depressed or thinking, ‘Wow, this is a great opportunity here.’”
So says Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a gregarious Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, on the prospects of libertarianism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Governments worldwide have responded to the novel coronavirus in dramatic and unprecedented ways. Many countries have provided impressive displays of executive action: border closures, limits on public meetings, rapid legislation, and massive relief packages.
These seem like dark days for libertarianism — a political philosophy built on individual liberty, property rights, and a zealous critique of the state.
As Cato’s Jeffrey Miron put it in inimitably libertarian style, “Control of infectious diseases might seem to be a textbook case where private actions will not produce good outcomes for society overall.”
Is it then true that, just as there are no atheists in the proverbial foxhole, there are no libertarians in a pandemic?
