New Study Provides Yet More Evidence That COVID Lockdowns Didn’t Work

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, even alarmist government officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci have admitted that it’s time to learn to live with the virus rather than disrupt our ordinary lives. In recent months, there has been a concentrated shift among our elected officials and expert class attempting to “move on” from the pandemic—perhaps because the policy decisions they made have aged so terribly. 

Yet another comprehensive study was just released showing that the drastic lockdowns (“stay-at-home orders”) enacted in many US states did not meaningfully reduce COVID-19 mortality. Economists Casey P. Mulligan, Stephen Moore, and Phil Kerpen ran the numbers to rank all 50 states on COVID mortality, economic performance, and pandemic education outcomes (based on how much they were able to keep schools open). 

The results show that despite their drastic, sometimes-lethal second-order consequences, government lockdowns did not meaningfully reduce COVID-19 mortality.

“Excluding the geographically unusual cases of Hawaii and Alaska to focus on the continental U.S., there is no apparent relationship between reduced economic activity during the pandemic and our composite mortality measure,” the authors conclude. 

While one can find outliers in either direction, the data for the individual states analyzed in this paper support this general conclusion.

Florida, for example, was much-maligned for its hands-off approach to the pandemic. 

“Florida Man Leads His State to the Morgue,” a New Republic headline blared.

“How did Florida get so badly hit by Covid-19?” asked the BBC. 

“Ron DeSantis Plays Disaster Politics as Florida Again Reels From Coronavirus,” thundered US News.

Yet as the Wall Street Journal editorial board noted, Florida ranked 6th overall, 3rd for educational outcomes, 13th for economic outcomes, and 26th—pretty middle-of-the-pack—for COVID mortality. (Despite having a disproportionately elderly population!)

California, meanwhile, ranked 40th for its economic outcomes and 50th for education outcomes because it so heavily restricted its economy and kept its schools closed for so long. However, it ranked 27th for COVID mortality, marginally worse than Florida despite all the lockdown damage California inflicted on itself. 

New York and New Jersey fared similarly dismally. 

There were some states, like Hawaii, where drastic lockdowns did correspond with excellent COVID-19-related outcomes. However, they were exceptions to the norm, and can often be explained by other factors. (Like Hawaii being, you know, a series of islands). 

This is hardly the first study to reach the conclusion that lockdowns didn’t work. 

Consider, for example, a comprehensive literature review examining relevant studies published by Johns Hopkins University in February. It found that despite their drastic costs, “lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality.”

Why? Well, other research also found that the most COVID spread occurred, paradoxically, at home. (Making “stay-at-home” orders tragically counterproductive). 

But the real reason lockdowns failed is much more fundamental. Lockdowns failed because they were rooted in extreme hubris, a deadly arrogance from policymakers who believed that if they simply wielded enough concentrated power they could stop the spread of an uber-contagious virus. They decided to play God, and that decision proved disastrous. 

The Greek philosopher Socrates once said that “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” 

Lockdown politicians should have heeded this ancient advice. Because, as yet another study just showed, their arrogance imposed drastic costs on citizens while failing to achieve better results. 

WATCH: 😳 Reacting to Robert Reich’s 4 Worst Socialist TikToks (CRINGE)

Brad Polumbo

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

New Study Provides Yet More Evidence That COVID Lockdowns Didn’t Work

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (1070-1073)

See the previous post in this series here.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are many thousands of these slides. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides from the late 1950s that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.

Click the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

The first three photos in this set appear to have been taken at the same time and place as the last photo in the previous set. At a cabin by a lake somewhere. They are undated and unlabeled but were probably taken sometime in the 1960s. The last photo in this set was obviously taken in a church. Based on some other photos scanned previously, probably University Methodist Church in Ohio. It was processed in April 1958.

processed April 1958

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.

Nintendo Power (November 1996)

Nintendo Power (November 1996)

By 1996, the Nintendo 64 was Nintendo's newest system but more games were probably still being released for the Super Nintendo and of course the Game Boy was still being supported. The November 1996 issue includes:

Strategy

• Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64) - This Jet Ski racing game was a follow-up to Wave Race on the Game Boy which had been released four years earlier.


• Blast Corps (Nintendo 64) - A rather odd concept of a game in which you must destroy all obstacles in the path of an out of control carrier which is carrying an unstable nuclear payload. If it hits anything, nuclear winter will commence.


• DKC 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Super Nintendo) - Donkey Kong Country really raised the bar on graphics and animation for the SNES and became quite popular. So much so that there were two sequels.


• Super Star Wars (Super Nintendo) - This game was pretty old by this point but it was hard and no doubt tips and strategies were much appreciated.


• Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (Super Nintendo) - I guess the fact that this is a Disney game explains why the duck artwork looks so Donald Duck like. I don't remember this one at all though. However, it garners comparisons to Earthworm Jim for its humor.


• Arcade's Greatest Hits (Super Nintendo) - Hints for this classic arcade compilation that includes Defender, Defender II, Joust, Robotron and Sinistar.

Special Features

• Shadows of the Empire Comic part 2 - An excerpt from the Dark Horse comic.


• Critical Info: Super Mario 64 Charts - A couple of charts that tell you how to obtain 15 100-coin stars with info like a list of enemies that give up the coins. Plus, a complete inventory of the Areas.

_{Table of Contents from the November 1996 issue of Nintendo Power}

Epic Center

• Epic News - A couple of new Super Famicom games from Japan, including Marvelous: Another Adventure Island and Wonder Project J2. Also, upcoming KOEI games for the Nintendo 64.


• Sim City 2000 - A detailed look at Sim City 2000 for the Super Nintendo.

Every Issue

• Player's Pulse - Now that the Nintendo 64 is out, readers seemed to be worried about whether or not the Super Nintendo will still be supported. Also, complaints with tacking on '64' to every game title.


• Power Charts - At the top of the charts is Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, and Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.


• Arena - Some specific game challenges for Pilotwings 64, Tettris Attack for the Game Boy and Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run.


• Classified Information - Secret codes and tips for Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run, Tetris Attack, Madden '96, Scooby-Doo, Frantic Flea, DragonHeart, Separation Anxiety, NHL '96, Mega Man VII, Mega Man X3 and The Brainies.


• Counselor's Corner - Readers ask for help in Pilotwings 64, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.


• Now Playing - Brief overviews of the latest releases including Arcade's Greatest Hits (Super NES), Battle Arena: Toshinden (Game Boy), Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Super NES), Magic Boy (Super NES), Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy), Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (Super NES), Super Star Wars (Super NES), Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64), Simcity 2000 (Super NES) and Whizz (Super NES).

_{Back cover of the November 1996 issue of Nintendo Power}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2022/04/26/nintendo-power-november-1996/

Commander (January 1983)

Commander (January 1983)

Subtitled "The Monthly Journal for Commodore Computer Users", this was one of the early magazine for Commodore related computers. In 1983 the Commodore 64, VIC-20, and PET/CBM were being covered. The January 1983 issue includes:

VIC-20

• Enterprise - A type-in Star Trek themed game. It was supposed to be in the previous issue but the code listing was left out.


• Ravings of a Madman - An overview of where to get games for the VIC-20 and what is available.


• Gobble - A type in program that generates random mazes that you must navigate while eating dots and avoiding the enemy.

64

• Peek & Poke - Programming the SID, the Commodore 64's sound chip.

_{Table of Contents from the January 1983 issue of Commander}

PET/CBM

• Review: A ROM for the PET "COMMANDER" - A ROM chip for the PET that could be added to provide additional high level commands that can be used from BASIC. Some examples include RE-DIMENSION which resizes arrays and COMPUTED GOTO which allows a GOTO statement based on a variable.

Special Features

• Single Drive Copy - A type-in program for making disk copies with a single disk drive.


• RADIX-50: Pack & Unpack - A program for packing ASCII bits (24-bits to 16-bits) in order to save memory and disk space. Originally developed for the PDP-8.


• COMAL: A Closer look - A look at the COMAL programming language and a sample program.


• Assembly Language Programming on the VIC - Part II - Part 2 of a multipart series on using assembly language on the VIC-20. This part covers assemblers and monitors.

Departments

• Letters to Editor - One reader's opinion of various VIC-20 games plus praise for the new magazine.


• Editorial - As some computer makers suffer huge loses (Atari lost $1 billion in 1982), they turn to distributing the product in retail chains such as Sears and K-Mart. Just don't expect to get your technical questions answered there...


• News Releases - A list of companies and retail establishments supporting the VIC-20.

_{Back cover of the January 1983 issue of Commander}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2022/04/25/commander-january-1983/

Canada to Ban “Downplaying” the Holocaust in Major Blow to Free Speech

Canada will be outlawing Holocaust denial in an attempt to crack down on white-supremacism and antisemitism in the country, documents show. The change to the Criminal Code will come as part of a bill enacting the budget (yes, seriously).

“The federal government is set to make it a criminal offence to make a statement denying the Holocaust took place or condoning or downplaying the killing of Jews by the Nazi regime, except in a private conversation,” The Globe and Mail reports. “Canada will join a string of European countries, including Germany, Greece, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic, which have already prohibited Holocaust denial.”

“There is no place for antisemitism and Holocaust denial in Canada,” said Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino regarding the move. “The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. We must preserve its memory, combat contemporary antisemitism and be unequivocal when we say: never again.”

Aside from the clear free speech problems, the broad wording of the bill is particular cause for concern. For instance, what exactly constitutes “denying, condoning, or downplaying” the Holocaust? These are relatively ambiguous terms that are open to interpretation, and it’s by no means obvious where the legal line will be drawn.

A good illustration of this issue can be found in the Globe piece itself. Consider the following quote from Irwin Cotler, the prime minister’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.

“Holocaust denial and distortion constitute a cruel assault on memory, truth, and justice – an antisemitic libel to cover up the worst crime in history – and thereby a cruel and mocking rebuke to Holocaust survivors and their legacy.”

According to Cotler, presumably one of the architects of this law, the Holocaust was “the worst crime in history.” Now here’s a question. If someone said the Holocaust was not the worst crime in history, would that constitute “downplaying” the Holocaust? Would that statement be punishable under this law?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Now, it’s tempting to think that a law like this is more about making a statement than actually handing out fines and throwing people in jail. But these are not empty threats. Just a couple weeks ago, a Berlin court sentenced a 93-year-old German woman to 12 months in prison for denying the Holocaust. If the Canadian government is copying this German law, there’s no reason to believe they won’t also copy German-style enforcement.

The possibility of fines or even jail time puts this law into perspective, and it’s a sobering reminder about what it really means to outlaw something. The cold truth is that all laws are ultimately enforced with threats of violence. To ban or prohibit an action is to threaten violence against those who do it. Of course, a fine in itself is not a violent act. But if you ignore the fine and all subsequent demands (that is, if you peacefully mind your own business), sooner or later someone will show up to your house with a gun and threaten you with physical force.

Given this reality, the question we need to ask about this law is not whether the Holocaust was good or bad, real or fake, egregious or minor. The simple question is, would you use a gun to stop someone from saying things about the Holocaust that you disagree with? Is this something that warrants the threat and use of physical force?

Now, if you’re tempted to say yes, you’re not alone. After all, allowing people to speak freely means some people will probably say wrong or hateful things. But we need to be careful here. If we don’t allow hateful people to say hateful things, if we justify using the gun, then we have abandoned the principle of liberty and opened the door to tyranny.

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom,” said H.L. Mencken, “is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

As tempting as it is to make an exception to free speech in the case of Holocaust denial, this sets a dangerous precedent. If we do not speak up now when they are going after Holocaust deniers, what’s to stop them from going after “climate deniers,” “election deniers,” or “war propaganda deniers”? Once this kind of law gets passed, it becomes very easy to go further, outlawing any speech deemed offensive, false, or otherwise inappropriate.

The point is, the moment we make exceptions is the moment we lose the principle. “If we don’t believe in free expression for people we despise,” said Noam Chomsky, “we don’t believe in it at all.”

This article was adapted from an issue of the FEE Daily email newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free-market news and analysis like this in your inbox every weekday.

Patrick Carroll

Patrick Carroll has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is an Editorial Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Canada to Ban “Downplaying” the Holocaust in Major Blow to Free Speech

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (1066-1069)

See the previous post in this series here.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are many thousands of these slides. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides from the late 1950s that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.

Click the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

The first two photos in this set were processed in May 1962. The first was taken from an airplane somewhere over the mountains (perhaps of Northern Italy). The second features the Victor Emmanuel II National Monument located in Rome Italy. The third photo was processed in August 1962 and shows a giant tend...perhaps a circus? The final image has no label or dates but was probably taken in the late 1960s. It features a few people chilling outside their cabin...

processed May 1962

processed May 1962

processed August 1962

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.

VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine (June 1994)

VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine (June 1994)

Video gaming magazine can have a complicated lineage. One of my favorites, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment morphed into VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine but many of the editors/writers I liked went on to reboot Electronic Games instead. VideoGames spawned Tips and Tricks which, though they overlapped for a while, essentially replaced it. I followed VG&CE but not so much VideoGames and Tips and Tricks... Anyway, the June 1994 issue of VideoGames includes:

News

• Input - A discussion of the then new video games rating system.


• Press Start - More about the ratings system and the political pressure that led to it; Nintendo announces the Super Game Boy; Revolution-X featuring Aerosmith is released in the arcades; an interview with the makers of Way of the Warrior for the 3DO; NovaLogic works on helicopter sim for the Saturn; Philips announces lower priced ($299) CD-i; and more...

Previews

• Demolition Man - An action game for the Sega Genesis based on the movie of the same name featuring Sylvester Stalone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bulloch.


• Tennis All-Stars - A tennis game for the Genesis in the new "J-Cart" format. A J-Cart in addition to containing the game also added two additional controller ports for 4-player action. This tennis game allowed 4 players in a doubles game.


• Psycho Pinball - Another J-Cart, this one featuring video pinball with six tables.


• Kasumi Ninja - What would turn out to be a pretty decent fighting game for the Atari Jaguar.


• Doom - A pretty good translation of Doom for the Atari Jaguar (they seemed to keep porting this game to new systems for years and years) but really, no version beats the original PC version.

_{Table of Contents from the June 1994 issue of VideoGames}

Tips & Tricks

• Tempest 2000 - Tips to skip levels and to play bonus levels.


• NBA Jam - Tricks to enable the special guest players from the arcade version, enable power-ups such as speeding up game play, set your player "on fire" for the whole game, and more.


• Ground Zero Texas - A mini strategy guide to help get you through this FMV game.


• Robocop Versus The Terminator - A trick to unlock the MA-17 version of this game for the Genesis.


• ...and lots more!

Strategy Guides

• Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions - General tips as well as guides to each level of this side-scrolling action game featuring Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck for the Super Nintendo.


• Kether - Strategy guide for a weird sort of 3D shooter that nobody had ever heard of for the CD-i.


• Tempest 2000 - Make it through all 100 levels of this update to the classic arcade game on the Atari Jaguar.

Reviews

• Super Street Fighter II Turbo - This review is for the arcade version of the game which had just been released.


• Spectre - This game for the Super Nintendo is essentially a 3D battle game in which you are placed in a flying craft in an arena and must battle it out with robots. It's an ok game but without much variety. The PC version was better for the simple reason that you could play over a network with multiple people.


• Rocko's Modern Life - This is a platform/puzzle game for the Super Nintendo based on the Nickelodeon cartoon of he same name. It ends up being pretty good for a kids game based on a license.


• Super Loopz - A puzzle game for the Super Nintendo in which you must construct polygons. There are various modes including two-player cooperative and competitive modes. It is a pretty good game if you are a fan of puzzle games.


• Flintstones - This game based on the cartoon for the Super Nintendo mixes a variety of genres including racing, platform, and board game. However, it ends up being too short and easy to provide much value.


• Jetsons - A fairly unique platform game for the Super Nintendo based on the cartoon. It is an excellent game overall but the challenge level makes it better for older players than for younger kids.


• Asterix - An average (at best) platform game for the Sega Genesis.


• Mortal Kombat - The Sega CD version of this game offers a few relatively minor upgrades including some FMV, a soundtrack and a few more frames of animation.


• Third World War - A strategy game for the Sega CD that the reviewer compared to KOEI's offerings. The graphics aren't great, the interface is complicated and the voice acting is pretty awful but as a strategy game it's not bad.


• Rise of the Dragon - A cyberpunk themed graphic adventure for the Sega CD sounds like a good idea but unfortunately, this particular implementation is average at best. It was also a conversion of a game that had been around on the PC for a few years already.


• Micro Reviews - Short reviews of several games including Spider-Man and the X-Men (Game Gear), Aladdin (Game Gear), G2 Rider (Game Gear), and more.

Other Cool Stuff

• Alien vs. Predator: Stalking the Jaguar, Burning Up the Arcades - Interview with Atari producer James Hampton about Alien vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar. Also, a look at the arcade version of AvP which is a completely different game (fighting game vs. FPS).


• SportsWire: Sports game news, reviews, previews and more - Midway releases NBA Jam TE for the arcade; Sterling Sharpe signs with Jaleco for a Super Nintendo football game called Sterling Sharpe: End to End...but I don't remember this one; previews include World Cup USA '94 (Super NES), Mario Andretii Racing (Genesis), Champions World Class Soccer (Genesis), and Suzuka 8 Hours II (arcade); a review of Baseball Tonight for the Super Nintendo; a review of Double Dribble: The Playoff Edition for the Genesis; a review of Jammit for the Genesis; and a review for Soccer Shootout for the Super Nintendo.


• Hardware: Gaming accessories galore - New items include the Super Link multiplayer adapter for the SNES, the Mega Mouse for the Genesis, the Interactor Virtual Reality Vest, and more.

_{Back cover of the June 1994 issue of VideoGames}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2022/04/04/videogames-the-ultimate-gaming-magazine-june-1994/

A Response to Out of Frame’s Exploration of Cowboy Bebop and Moral Hazard

Before expounding on my critique, let it be clearly stated that I am a mega fan of Sean Malone, Out of Frame, and virtually all the content published by The Foundation for Economic Education. Watching Out of Frame in high school played a pivotal role in my path to classical liberalism because the economics, public choice theory, and political philosophy was explained in a down-to-earth, exciting fashion through Sean’s exploration of these themes in popular media.

That caveat being clearly made, I’m also a huge Cowboy Bebop fan. Unsurprisingly, I was ecstatic to see Out of Frame cover the anime hot off the heels of Netflix’s live-action adaption of the groundbreaking early aughts masterpiece.

I found myself agreeing with Sean’s overarching thesis that there’s an inextricable connection “between personal responsibility, good decision-making, and finding meaning in your own life.” More specifically, Sean discusses the importance of bearing the financial costs of one’s actions lest moral hazard be allowed to run amok and others be forced to bear the cost of actions they did not undertake. As a lover of Frédéric Bastiat, I instantly identified Sean’s reformulation of what my favorite proto-libertarian 19th century French economic journalist referred to as “The Law of Responsibility” in his seminal essay, The Law.

No surprise there: Sean is a principled libertarian who has acute understanding and appreciation for the philosophical basis undergirding this political framework. It’s because of my honest appreciation for Sean’s steadfast commitment to liberal values that I was shocked by one of the positions he defended in this episode.

Sean argues that Faye Valentine, the fan-favorite femme-fatale of the motley crew aboard the Bebop, is obliged to recompense those people who cryopreserved and resuscitated her following an otherwise fatal spacefaring accident. The reader might think, “Oh, so you believe Faye doesn’t owe her benefactors a dime because the service they provided her was necessary to preserve her life!”

However popular such an argument might be among progressives, this is decidedly not my argument. Like all libertarians worth their salt, I too reject the conflation of positive entitlements to necessary goods and services as rights. To believe in positive “rights” in a world of scarcity is tantamount to believing you have a claim to others’ unpaid labor, time, skillset, property etc. Such a belief is clearly anathema to classical liberals who believe in individuals’ negative right to liberty, private property, and autonomy. On these grounds, Sean is right to say that “they could have just as easily let [Faye] die in the frozen vastness of space.” In fact, nobody had any moral obligation to invest their own time, energy, capital, or anything else to save Faye’s life. Nor did Faye ask anybody to do so.

It is this one-sided nature of Faye’s rescue and subsequent debt that forces me to take umbrage with Sean squarely on libertarian grounds: the rescuers did not receive Faye’s consent, meaning they unilaterally entered a contract with an unconscious person who, definitionally, was entirely unable to accept or reject the terms of said contract. Again, to Sean’s credit, he is right that expensive resources were allocated to preserve Faye’s life and that the money for these goods and services must come out of somebody’s pocket. This much is undeniable.

However, Sean’s assertion that this pocket ought to be Faye’s is considerably more dubious. Moreover, Sean’s invocation of moral hazard in the beginning of his video is rather misleading. After all, unlike someone who purchases home-owner’s insurance and consequently leaves candles burning while they’re sleeping without a care in the world, Faye did not act in an unreasonably risky fashion with the knowledge that, were something to go awry, somebody would be forced to bear the costs of her actions. TL;DR: Moral hazard simply isn’t at play here.

To illustrate where Sean errs in his reasoning, I’m going to present the reader with a hypothetical scenario and leave it to her judgment as to whether she believes it just to demand payment from the beneficiary of an unrequested and unconsented service.

A common-enough panhandling scheme is to wash a parked car’s windshield while the vehicle is immobilized in traffic and to demand compensation from the driver for the service. The argument deployed by the panhandler is that the driver has received utility from his service rendered–this much I shall not dispute–and thus has a right to be paid for doing so. There are two problems with this, one economic and the other moral.

Economically, the panhandler is demanding a wage that he sets unilaterally according to what he deems his time is worth. Unfortunately, this implicit labor theory of value position fails to consider that one’s man’s trash (or time) is not necessarily another man’s treasure (money). This is evidence of why mutually accepted contracts are so important: they are only assented to when both parties deem that what they gain from the transaction is worth what they forfeit.

Morally, the panhandler’s position is just as indefensible. One cannot spontaneously perform a service for another and demand anything in return. While it isn’t morally impermissible to unilaterally provide someone a good or service for free, i.e., to give somebody a gift, it is clearly implausible to contend that gifting somebody something amounts to a moral claim to that person, their efforts, or their money.

The panhandler scenario is analogous to Faye’s unsolicited resurrection and subsequent debt-servitude to her “saviors” in Cowboy Bebop. If one accepts the arguments that I presented in the former, he must accept them in the latter. I would imagine that Sean would readily agree with me in the former and yet he adamantly maintained that Faye’s rescuers have a legitimate claim to Faye’s property, labor, and even her very person until the towering debt they accumulated on her behalf is paid off. This situation is involuntary indentured servitude. Or, in simpler terms, slavery.

Now, I do not believe for a second that Sean supports unilateral contract-making/breaking, involuntary association, or forced labor. Again, they are all principled libertarians. That said, I do honestly believe Sean drew a false conclusion here that is in absolute discord with the rest of his classical liberal first principles, most importantly an absolute respect for individual autonomy, voluntary association, and duly entered contracts.

I conclude by asking the reader if she believes she would owe anybody anything if she suddenly woke up in an unfamiliar world in the distant future with a kidnapper/hero (I’ll let you be the judge of that) telling her that she died in her sleep, was whisked away to his cryochamber, and was resuscitated against her will.

Jack Nicastro

Jack Nicastro was a Research Intern at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy at Dartmouth College.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

A Response to Out of Frame’s Exploration of Cowboy Bebop and Moral Hazard