Money-Making and Commerce go Hand-in-Hand with the Fight against COVID-19

In a NJ Star-Ledger Guest Column, Money’s the madness pushing some lockdowns foes, past Gloucester County Branch NAACP president Milton W. Hinton Jr. joined the chorus of voices denigrating the lockdown critics. As Hinton simplistically put it:

In their minds, commerce takes precedent over everyone’s health and well-being. For them, a large number of future deaths from COVID-19 are acceptable as long as money is being made. This thinking is “collective madness” for society as a whole. [My emphasis]

So, it’s either/or - the economy and death or economic hardship and . . . what, life? He brushes off the view that possibly you can both increase commerce and restrain the pandemic:

“Atlantic County Officials need to sound the alarm. Reopen New Jersey immediately without restrictions. Trust American freedom, ingenuity and the US Constitution. Unite the hands of the Private Sector so it can rescue NJ from this nightmare.” After widespread criticism, Curcio modified his post to read “… with sensible restrictions.” [My emphasis]

Interestingly, Hinton hits on a crucial point about American freedom:

Let me respond to the surrogate that I do not trust “the American freedom” or its “ingenuity” when it appears to mean that citizens can do whatever they want, whenever they want, no matter the outcome for everyone else. Your alleged freedom stops where mine begins.

Medical experts and scientists, who I do trust, are advising the public to maintain social distancing and all the other protective measures in order to prevent needless deaths and spread of this virus.

Note who Hinton doesn’t trust--private citizens. I guess he views money-making and commerce as amoral “anything goes” activities. Notice also that he puts American freedom and ingenuity in scare quotes, and prefaces the word freedom with “alleged” in the last sentence. Maybe he doesn’t really understand the crucial importance of the principle expressed in that last sentence, viz, the American concept of individual rights, which establishes the scope and limits of individual freedom. 

Money-making is the act of creating goods and services that others value enough to pay you for. It is the heart of trade, which is commerce.  It is what we are counting on to defeat the virus. The CARES Act is made possible only because prior money-making gave the government something to redistribute. The huge burst of research and production repurposed toward COVID-fighting supplies, medicines, etc. is made possible by investment capital created by prior money-making. Money-making is the means of supporting our lives, families, and futures. Money-making, in short, is life. 

And individual freedom is the social condition that enables commerce. That’s what lockdown opponents are fighting for (though not all, unfortunately, responsibly). Thankfully, some commerce continues to operate. It’s noteworthy that leaving “essential” money-making businesses free to continue operating with social distancing restrictions seems to be working. This indicates that the rest of commerce needn’t have been shut down. It’s not at all certain that draconian statewide lockdowns were or is the way to go. Limited quarantines and social distancing commerce, rather statewide lockdowns, may have worked.

American freedom does not mean “that citizens can do whatever they want, whenever they want, no matter the outcome for everyone else.” It’s true that “Your freedom stops where mine begins.” That’s what the principle of unalienable individual rights accomplishes. That’s what American Freedom actually is. Our political authorities, not the lockdown critics, are the ones who seem to have abandoned that other American principle, constutionally limited government—"Your authority ends where my liberty rights begin."

While I can’t support all of the tactics of the lockdown opponents, I do give them moral credit for bringing freedom to the forefront of the “reopen” debate. I am, after all, an American.

An American will always hold public authorities’ accountable, and demand they offer strong constitutional and principled justifications for any liberty restricting policies that they impose on us.

Related Reading:

‘Reopening’ the Economy: It’s Not ‘Money vs. lives,’ or Even ‘Money or Lives’

Moral Rights and Political Freedom by Tara Smith  

“Francisco’s Money Speech”, from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Healthcare and the Role of Money

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