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COVID Ethics: It’s Immoral to Confine Innocent People Who Might Be a Threat

COVID Ethics: It’s Immoral to Confine Innocent People Who Might Be a Threat
Activists hold signs and protest the California lockdown due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, in San Diego, Calif., on May 1, 2020. The protesters demands included opening small businesses, churches as well as support for President Trump. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
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Commentary
A few weeks ago I presented a libertarian take on the ethics of the lockdown. Following Murray Rothbard in his ”Ethics of Liberty,” I argued that the government has no right to confine or quarantine innocent people, even though it might lengthen some lives. The government is not the just owner of the streets. Rather citizens or taxpayers are, and consequently have the right to use their streets. Moreover, anyone is innocent until proven guilty and cannot just be assumed to intentionally be infecting others with a deadly virus.
Philipp Bagus
Philipp Bagus
Author
Philipp Bagus is professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. He is a Fellow of the Mises Institute, an IREF Scholar, and the author of numerous books including “In Defense of Deflation,” “The Tragedy of the Euro,” and is coauthor of “Blind Robbery!,” “Small States. Big Possibilities: Small states are simply better,” and “Deep Freeze: Iceland’s Economic Collapse.”
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