COVID-19 changed life almost overnight. Health care workers and medical supply networks were stressed in ways not seen in at least 50 years. Lockdowns have changed work, school, grocery shopping, and family and social life for billions of people worldwide in ways perhaps never seen before. Here in the U.S., unemployment is suddenly the highest it has been since the Great Depression. The economy is officially now in a recession. More to the point, more than 100,000 people have died.
What is the appropriate public policy response to this crisis? In a short video, Kent Lassman makes the case for lifting barriers that government has built that block people’s ingenuity and ability to fight the coronavirus. For lifting restrictions on access to health care providers and treatments. And for removing regulations that block access to capital for businesses struggling to stay afloat, or that stop them from hiring people.
That means freezing new rules, suspending harmful ones, and adding sunsets to rules so they automatically expire if they don’t work as intended. The wisest policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the tough recovery ahead is to get rid of regulations that were #NeverNeeded in the first place.
Inertia Wins! 