Yours truly was one of many who early on cheered the government for aggressively curbing everyone’s activity to slow the spread of COVID-19.

At the time, it seemed such a clear choice between life and death. Admittedly, I was squeamish endorsing government controls, something I’ve spent decades writing to oppose. What could possibly go wrong?

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

Franklin recognized a false trade-off when he saw one. It took yours truly only a couple weeks to see the same picture. Every freedom you give up makes you more vulnerable, not safer.

There are two ways despots comes to power. One is to kill their way into control. The more insidious way is to promise to “take care of you.” Wannabe despots don’t bother explaining the fine print: “They will decide what’s good for you, once you’ve handed that power over to them.”

(By the way, that’s also how we got the vast corruption in the FISA courts, which we were assured when they were created would have adequate safeguards to prevent what the Justice Department and FBI clearly have done targeting President Trump.)

Death tolls don’t capture the full scale of the suffering of this Made-in-China virus. It’s literally a thousand times greater than the death count.

Sixteen thousand Americans died from COVID-19 in three weeks.

Sixteen million Americans lost their jobs in the same three weeks.

How many of the 16 million will find themselves permanently out of jobs? That depends largely on how many of their employers are permanently ruined by government’s forced shutdown.

We can’t tell today precisely how many American businesses were killed during this period because they look just like many other businesses: they are closed.

The actual number of lost jobs will be known only after all businesses are permitted by their government overseers to reopen. By then, it will be too late to do anything about those lost jobs. They will be gone, along with their employers.

It also will be too late to do anything about nearly doubling government spending this year alone, which ironically we are told the government must do to offset the damage done by the government’s shutdown.

Who do you think is going to pay the trillions of extra dollars the government wants to spend? Your sons, daughters and grandchildren.

Who is affected by the resultant inflationary effect? Everyone’s dollar is reduced in purchasing power with the printing of more fiat money to cover government’s massive new spending. This short-sighted solution guarantees long-lasting damage.

Our world-class health care is a product of affluence. Diminish the one and you diminish the other. Every American standard of living will suffer similarly as investment dollars evaporate, payrolls are cut and expansion plans shelved.

When do the economic dominoes stop falling? Because of its enormous scale, you and I won’t live to see it. Our kids and grandkids probably won’t either.

Remember how your parents or grandparents talked about the horrific effects of the Great Depression?

It wasn’t the stock market crash that threw a fourth of Americans out of work in the 1930s. It was government’s attempts to rescue and stimulate the economy. Subsequently, FDR’s socialist programs exacerbated and prolonged the Depression. A good number of those faux fixes became permanent, as did their harm.

It took Japan bombing Pearl Harbor to give the government something more biblical to do -- suppress evil -- rather than double down as the all-controlling combination of Big Brother and Nanny, crushing more liberties and further devastating the economy, ala Venezuela.

By the way, it’s estimated this season’s regular annual flu has killed many more than Covid-19’s 16,000 fatalities, perhaps nearly four times as many, up to 62,000. Do you know of anyone who was locked down, furloughed or laid off for the routine flu?

I am in that most vulnerable age bracket for Covid-19. But I’m at least bright enough to avoid a ventilator by freely choosing to social-distance myself to minimize risks, as are the vast majority of Americans. Nevertheless, the government, in its presumed omniscience, demands that everyone must do what the most vulnerable should do – lock down in isolation.

That is an economy killer. A sledge hammer to drive a nail.

If this overwrought control mania doesn’t stop soon, the damage will take decades to correct. To see what it looks like when government refuses to stop violating liberties and controlling lives examine North Korea and Cuba. To think it cannot happen here is to disregard human inclinations about power, and the corrupting influence of control, particularly unbridled control.

Did anyone notice the Colorado dad who was arrested and handcuffed last week for playing T-ball in a park with his 6-year-old daughter in “violation” of social distancing? He is a former cop. He assured his daughter: “Don't worry, Daddy's not going to get arrested. I've done nothing wrong.”

Surprise, surprise. Cops just like him leaped at the opportunity to violate an individual’s constitutional rights when given permission from on high.

Some local jurisdictions are even issuing “forms” for neighbors to turn in each other for violations of stay-at-home and social distancing diktats. Does that sound like any government you’re familiar with? Orwell’s dystopia lives.

Now, go wash your hands. Then call your president, congressman, legislator, governor and mayor.

Mark Landsbaum is a retired journalist, former investigative reporter, editorial writer and columnist. He also is a Christian, husband, father, and grandfather. 

Image credit: Pixabay public domain