One of the reasons I've been opposed to coercive government mandates in response to covid is the "ratchet effect", described most eloquently by economist @[673139399:2048:Robert Higgs]:
"One of Higgs’ central contributions is the idea of state power ratcheting up over time. During every emergency, be it war or civil rights disputes or climate change or pandemics, the state introduces “temporary” one-off measures. Closing of borders, $1,200 checks, restrictions that harm people and kill businesses – all in the need of preserving our way of life over the long run. But we know, as Milton Friedman often pointed out, that there’s “nothing more permanent than a temporary government policy.”
Ask Sweden and its recently deceased star economist Assar Lindbeck, fighting as he did his entire career against rent control – a “temporary” measure introduced after World War II. Or the punitive marginal income tax on top incomes, levied as a “temporary” public finance effort during the banking crisis of the 1990s. Even after public finances had been under control and in good shape for at least twenty years, the worst portion of this expropriation was rolled back only this year – sending Sweden to a meagre third place in the league of highest marginal tax rates. James Buchanan predicted as much in Public Finance in Democratic Process from 1967. "
https://www.aier.org/article/will-things-ever-go-back-to-normal/
"One of Higgs’ central contributions is the idea of state power ratcheting up over time. During every emergency, be it war or civil rights disputes or climate change or pandemics, the state introduces “temporary” one-off measures. Closing of borders, $1,200 checks, restrictions that harm people and kill businesses – all in the need of preserving our way of life over the long run. But we know, as Milton Friedman often pointed out, that there’s “nothing more permanent than a temporary government policy.”
Ask Sweden and its recently deceased star economist Assar Lindbeck, fighting as he did his entire career against rent control – a “temporary” measure introduced after World War II. Or the punitive marginal income tax on top incomes, levied as a “temporary” public finance effort during the banking crisis of the 1990s. Even after public finances had been under control and in good shape for at least twenty years, the worst portion of this expropriation was rolled back only this year – sending Sweden to a meagre third place in the league of highest marginal tax rates. James Buchanan predicted as much in Public Finance in Democratic Process from 1967. "
https://www.aier.org/article/will-things-ever-go-back-to-normal/