If the public is so badly misinformed, how can they possibly make a rational assessment of their government’s response to COVID-19?

Early on during the pandemic, I made a point to limit my reading to a select group of the most rational writers and commentators, who take the balance of evidence in account when discussing the inevitable trade-offs of the current moment. No dogma or politicking – just evidence and even-handed analysis.

And remarkably, I have emerged optimistic about the future of liberty in the United States.

The people are scared, and once again seem more than willing to hand over their economic freedom in the name of safety. Ostensibly, the rationale of “lives not livelihoods” is beneath this stripping away of our liberties. It is only “temporary,” we are told, just as the income tax and PATRIOT Act were merely temporary measures to address the extraordinary circumstances of WWI and 9/11 respectively.

This book is structured as a compilation of edited interviews with my personal tutors from publications like Reason Magazine, Marginal Revolution, Cafe Hayek, the American Institute for Economic Research, and The Cato Institute, among others. With their help, I try to sort out the facts from the “fake news,” and judge the government’s overall response to the pandemic.

We all face trade-offs in life, yet certain politicians want to pretend these compromises don’t exist – spouting off platitudes like “lives, not livelihoods” without recognizing the critical importance of being able to earn a living to many people’s basic dignity. In foregoing our freedoms in the name of a bit of security, we are forfeiting our birthright.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”