I like these three papers by SWS President Mahar Mangahas. Reposting portions of them below. All photos here I got from the web.
(1) Allow people the freedom to earn a living
By: Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnetPhilippine Daily
Inquirer / 05:05 AM April 18, 2020
https://opinion.inquirer.net/129000/allow-people-the-freedom-to-earn-a-living
The responsibility
for surviving the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately lies with the Filipino people,
not the Philippine government. The government, having been set up by the
people, is tasked with helping to protect the people, by means of scientific,
intelligent, and credible guidance and assistance….
Unnecessary
restrictions on personal movement. As long as persons wear face masks and keep
adequate distance from each other, it does not make sense to inhibit them from
moving across barangays, cities, or provinces within Luzon. The mere act of
moving across a boundary does not imply the act of crowding. Checkpoints do not
make sense; in fact, they promote crowding by creating queues where there were
none.
Curfews do not make
sense; in fact, being able to go somewhere at night lessens the need for it
during the day. Use barangay tanods or even Boy Scouts, not armed policemen, to
discourage partying. A one-entrance-one-exit policy does not make sense; in
fact, having multiple entrances and exits for a public place makes it easier to
keep one’s distance. Limiting the hours of groceries or banks does not make
sense; in fact, the longer the hours, the shorter the queues (like at outdoor
automated teller machines).
Public
transportation does not have to be crowded. Trains, buses, taxis, jeepneys, and
even tricycles can all be modified/configured to carry only as many face-masked
passengers as will allow physical distancing (see “Restore jeepneys and
tricycles,” Opinion, 3/21/20). Let associations of transport operators develop
their own protocols for disinfecting their vehicles, and screening passengers
for symptoms…
Let occupational
groups find ways to operate and also observe physical distancing. With the use
of face masks and shields, client screening, disinfecting, configuration of
premises, and adjustment of business hours, there are ways for dental clinics,
barbershops, salons, repair shops, exercise gyms, etc. to operate without
compromising public health. Let them do their own protocols, without requiring
approval from any agency. As it is now, their clientele will be limited.
A time of pandemic
does not require any official determination of “essential” versus
“non-essential” products, services, or occupations. What is truly essential is
for the people to be able to freely earn a living.
(2) Hunger, fear,
caution, dependency
By: Mahar Mangahas
08:24 AM May 30, 2020
https://opinion.inquirer.net/130306/hunger-fear-caution-dependency
…from Social
Weather Stations’ media releases in the past week, based on its May 4-10, 2020
mobile phone survey about the COVID-19 crisis.
1. The hunger rate
exploded. The proportion of families that experienced hunger due to lack of
food, in the three months before being interviewed, was 16.7 percent, almost
double the rate of December 2019, when previously surveyed.
2. COVID-19 brought
fear of illness to a record high. The survey found 73 percent of Filipinos
worried a great deal that they or someone in their family might get infected by
COVID-19. This compares to an extremely worried 49 percent about contracting
the Ebola virus in 2014, 56 percent about getting Swine Flu in 2009, 48 percent
about Bird Flu in 2006, 62 percent about Bird Flu in 2004, and 54 percent about
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, based on SWS national surveys
in those times.
3. In line with
their fear of COVID-19, the great majority of Filipinos take proper
precautions. With respect to using a face mask when going out, the SWS survey
found 77 percent saying they do this always.
4. The lockdown has
caused a state of dependency among the people. Given its continued reluctance
for the people to resume their customary livelihoods—in particular, its
sluggishness in permitting ordinary public transport to operate—the government
must keep devising schemes to keep millions of people on “amelioration,” and
new ways to finance the doles. Otherwise it may bring on a second wave of
hunger.
(3) Try the
invisible hand
By: Mahar Mangahas -
05:05 AM July 04, 2020
https://opinion.inquirer.net/131421/try-the-invisible-hand
At this stage of
the pandemic, the main problem afflicting the economy is the heavy hand of
government.
After over three
months of lockdown, only some—I think less than half—of the nation’s jeepneys
are returning to service now. It is not because jeepney operators (the supply
side, in tens of thousands) are unwilling to provide the customary service, or
because commuters (the demand side, in the millions) are unwilling to use the
customary service.
It is because the
government is unwilling to allow the supply and demand sides to freely transact
with each other. Why have a few sectors—agriculture, banking, the stock
exchange, business process outsourcing, offshore gaming—always been allowed
freedom to operate, but not the extremely vital transportation sector, which
links very many sectors together?
Without need for
prodding, public transport operators have reconfigured their vehicles to cope
better with the pandemic. Without need for special warning, public transport
users have limited their demands to travel. Both sides do this out of their own
self-interest, for the sake of their livelihood and health.
This is how a free
market works, for the benefit of both sellers and buyers. Of course, prices of
commodities and services shall have to adjust accordingly, in order to equalize
demand and supply; so be it. (That’s the time for parties that feel socially
mistreated to seek assistance from government.)…
Adam Smith, one of
the founders of economics, observed centuries ago (“The Theory of Moral
Sentiment,” 1759; “The Wealth of Nations,” 1776) that there is “an invisible
hand” that keeps an economy in order, and benefits society as a whole, even as
individual people freely pursue their personal self-interest.
It was my good
fortune to study at the University of Chicago, and learn first-hand from the
great economic freedom fighter Milton Friedman (“Capitalism and Freedom,” 1962:
“Free to Choose,” 1980). For Friedman, freedom is the end, and capitalism is a
means.
I am a founding
member of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (fef.org.ph), where the
prevailing general sentiment, I believe, is that the people’s economic
well-being has already suffered too long from the government’s overly
restrictive policies.
The authorities,
both national and local, have issued too many questionable rules. Preventing
senior citizens and youngsters from going out is discriminatory. Many families
have children cared for solely by the grandparents; when outdoors, they would
not want to walk six feet apart, for the children’s security.
Curfews are not
justified by the pandemic. The COVID-19 virus does not travel any more swiftly
by night than by day. Using the nighttime for work (as well as play) allows
more physical distancing in the daytime.
Family members who
live indoors unmasked do not need to avoid close contact with each other when
outdoors. It is cruel to disallow masked riding on a motorcycle behind a
spouse, parent, or sibling (and to question their family relationship is an
invasion of privacy).
The invisible hand
promotes cooperation without coercion, at no financial expense.
---------------
After 5 months, February until today, all the scary
Frankenstein scenarios of massive deaths (tens or hundreds of thousands in PH
alone) from Wuhan virus, it should be clear by now that the scenarios are not
true. Fictional and not real. Many medical professionals also observed that
this virus is not as dangerous as previously thought.
We should focus on the economy and jobs. Millions have
been displaced. PSA labor stats April 2020, unemployed 7.3 M plus 3.0 M didn't join
the labor force, didn’t bother to look for a job, total 10.3 M working age people
were idle. The economic damages are real and factual, not fictional. The
continuing hysteria continues to wreak havoc on soooo many lives. If we can, we
should go out and spend money somewhere and help those that govt has forced to
be jobless or impoverished.
Cases are not deaths. Infection are not deaths. Covid
cases may rise 200%, even 1,000% but deaths may be flat or decline. If we are
tested today of Ebola virus, H1N1 virus, MERS virus, etc, some of us may even
be positive. But asymptomatic, not sick, not needing hospitalization. Group or
herd immunity. We already have immunity to the estimated 380 trillion viruses
in our body, adding a few mutated ones won't cause another round of massive
deaths. Only massive hysteria by people who want to "feel good" that
they are "doing something." Like prolonged lockdown and killing jobs
and businesses.
---------------
