There are always unintended consequences for various actions and policies, and the leaders of this country should start to understand and grasp this basic concept. One such consequence of the Covid-19 lockdown strategy is that crime and murders have increased rather significantly around the country.
I think there are a number of reasons for this dynamic in society. First of all, is that the Covid-19 lockdowns hurt poor people and lower SES groups rather hard. There is no working at home for much of the service sector ecosystem that supports all kinds of hourly wage employees. It isn’t just the businesses shutting down, it is all the support level jobs and wages of the economic ecosystem which go into supplying and supporting each business with their given operating needs. These support level jobs can be as minor as an entrepreneur in a small van that delivers fresh fish and seafood products hiring a helper to load and unload the truck and transport the merchandise into the corresponding businesses. Many times these people are on the fringes of modern society, and it doesn’t take much to send their lives into an economic tailspin, leading to more desperate actions and measures regarding behavioral choices. The bottom line is that there are sizable economic and social costs associated with shutting down businesses which negatively and severely effects the most vulnerable parts of the labor market and the underlying community ecosystem.
The second point is that there are a lot of individuals in our society right now who have nothing constructive to do with their time. In short, they have too much time on their hands. Human beings need to be working, just from a psychological and overall mental health standpoint. Even wealthier people who take early retirement often feel and experience the negative effects of having too much time on their hands, and nothing materially to keep themselves busy. There are a lot of social and mental benefits that go along with working in a structured environment where you are a necessary and productive member of a team that accomplishes business and organizational goals each week. I think we are experiencing some of this dynamic as well with the looting and rioting taking place in major cities, where people are free to do these behaviors because they aren’t busy at work, school and other recreational activities or at home exhausted and resting from said activities. Human beings don’t do well when their normal routines are altered in such an extreme manner, especially when this leaves them with lots of idle time on their hands, and little in the way of their normal structure and activities which guides their daily lives, thoughts and behaviors.
The third point is that many of these crimes are really senseless and stupid, and the brazen nature of some of these crimes reflects an evolving attitude and belief system that they can get away with these highly antisocial acts and behaviors without any real consequences. I think this is a reflection of what they see others getting away with on television, the stress of lockdowns and disruption of their normal routines, and the fact that law enforcement is being heavily attacked and not fully supported by those in leadership positions in this country. Again, the unintended consequences of choices are in full effect here. Into this perfect storm of social chaos, include the following dynamic where law enforcement feels that they are not being properly supported by the leadership representatives in their community, they have an impossible job to do, and all their actions are subject to unrealistic standards in high conflict scenarios, and this leads to the subsequent self-preservation mindset: “Why should they risk their necks for the community?” It is so much easier to just collect a paycheck and stay out of harm’s way. Crime is up 15% in my city, road rage episodes seem to happen every other day, and it appears that everyone has a gun. Even teenagers playing basketball in the park are carrying loaded firearms these days.
This is another unintended consequence of the enabling behavior by community leaders, and the non-support of law enforcement. These choices have probably set the gun control movement back 40 years in this country. As clearly the increase in firearms sales is a strong indication that law enforcement is in no position to protect everyday citizens from the dangers they face in society. Unfortunately, there are some real knuckleheads walking around with firearms these days who shoot their guns off every time they lose their temper because someone cuts in front of them while driving, they feel wronged in the aftermath of a basketball game, or someone insulted them on social media. The advocates of gun control must be consistent in their logic, either they have to guarantee and be able to provide a civil and socially stable society where citizens are safe from harm, or they are not going to be very convincing in their arguments and pleas for gun control measures. And coincidentally, there are even unintended consequences of this outcome that I don’t find particularly attractive.
Some of these are not easy decisions and often involve difficult tradeoffs, but others are actually very easy decisions for rational, critically thinking individuals to make. The problem is that this country has elected some rather stupid people, and simple-minded individuals who fail to think rationally and critically regarding public policy issues. And this set of circumstances is exacerbated by the fact that this provides a voice and further legitimacy to some of the least intelligent, irrational, and simple-minded segments of society. This is not how a healthy functioning society should work, where the mindless, least productive, and irrational members of society have a disproportionate effect on public policy outcomes for the country. But this is where we currently find ourselves today, with the least competent members of society having an outsized voice in determining public policy. And the idea of unintended consequences is just not a part of their conceptual schemes. As a result, we are going to have to deal with a lot of unintended consequences in this country, and this trend seems to be accelerating rather than leveling off at some dysfunctional baseline of mediocrity. Yeah, not really a fan of having stupid and incompetent people making decisions, determining outcomes, and setting public policy in this country.
Courtesy of John Mark Gray,
The views and opinions expressed herein are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of EconMatters.
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