The decisions between health and economy can’t be easy for any leaders
Toward the end of the April 16 briefing by Governor Beshear, Dr. Stack made mention of the difficult tension between, “[P]eople’s right to gather and people’s right to not be hurt.” I really appreciated that comment, because I believe many people are failing to see this difficult tension as such. I hope that taking a step back from the politics and taking a look at the ethics may help people get a feel for the tremendous pressure our elected officials are under.
There are three different aspects at play here: Physical health, mental health, and financial health. All of these are important, and any decision must balance all these aspects. As Dr. Stack alluded to, there is also another tension in play: Striking a balance between what ethicists refer to as personal autonomy (our freedom) and legal paternalism (the ability to pass laws or decrees to protect and prevent harm). In other words, it is the freedom for us to do what we want balanced with the government telling us what to do for our own good. These two aspects are in tension all the time, however, that tension has become stronger and more obvious during this crisis.
Inevitably the longer we wait to open up the country the more people will suffer under economic pressures: struggling to pay the bills and waiting in long lines at food banks. Further some will continue to slip deeper into a funk, which may cause legitimate cases of depression. Anxiety levels will continue to be higher than normal, and people may literally have mental breakdowns.
On the other side of the tension, the sooner we open up the country, inevitably the more people are going to get sick, rack up medical bills, and even die. While there are some small measures that could be taken to move toward reopening, even relaxing small regulations will likely cause slight increases in deaths.
There are a number of ways to try to determine the right thing to do in a situation like this, but I assume many will take what is known as a consequentialist approach. This approach means thinking through the probable consequences of certain actions and deciding on those which have the best overall consequences. In this situation one has to weigh the physical, mental, and economic consequences of an action. With COVID-19, moves to improve the economy will adversely affect people’s physical health. Our leaders are in the unfortunate position of having to decide how many deaths are acceptable for opening the economy. What actions can we take where the good consequences of the economy will outweigh the anguish of increased deaths and health problems? How many more deaths per day are acceptable in order to open restaurant lobbies again? Three? 20? 100? This is a difficult question. For our leaders though, this is not an abstract question. As we move toward opening the economy again, our leaders actually have to make this very real, very macabre decision.
Any decision made is going to be met with resistance. If the action is too paternalistic, people will complain it is too restrictive of freedoms. If it is too lax, people will complain that it will kill more people. The Governor’s decision to declare an emergency and start restrictions soon after the first case of the virus may have seemed extreme. On the other hand, when the President was slow to act in the beginning, his actions may have seemed too lax. It is very possible they were; just as it is possible that the Governor went too far in taking down church-goers license plate numbers. In these decisions it is possible to be irresponsibly lax, or so heavy-handed that the paternalism becomes government over-reach. However, what I want everyone to recognize is the solutions here are not simple. The strategies are not clear-cut. Our leaders are humans who make mistakes, and they are in difficult positions having to make difficult decisions that no matter what will upset some part of the population. Please be mindful of the weight of these decisions. Our leaders need your encouragement and prayers.
Jonathan Meyer is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University.