The Effects of a Pandemic on the US

    Through the year 2020, we have bared witness to some significant historical events within the world. The events we will be talking about today however are pertaining to the U.S. in particular and some of the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and their effects on free societies. With the reaction to this virus spreading around the country, there had to be a reaction by the inhabitants of the country in defense of their people to ensure public safety. When the Virus was first beginning to see record numbers of spread across the country, this caused the United States to react with their first, and certainly, most severe response to Covid-19, this being the Lockdown we experienced in March of this year. With this lockdown, we saw a government restriction of the freedoms of all people of the US. All over the country, we saw works close down, schools close down, and since then we have slowly seen the world shift and adapt to this new world we must live in, with new formalities formed by our circumstance. 

    As for the actual Lockdown, this event has massive implications in a historical sense for the United States. As an initial effect, we saw the stock market hit massively by the loss of workforce as it quickly downturned early on in the pandemic. At the same time this is happening, as we have discussed business are shutting down left and right which ultimately forced layoffs which spikes the unemployment rate in the country. This has been one of the most major impacts of the pandemic in terms of free society, being the access to labor. As we have seen, unemployment numbers have spiked, which conversely means that the number of opportunities have dwindled as a result of the essentially stalled market. This is problematic as we have a willing labor force that wants to participate in the workforce that are actively being told they cannot participate in the workforce at the moment as they are not deemed "essential". There is a problem however to paint this issue as being so simple as in reality there is very sound reasoning behind not allowing workers to return to the workforce which has a very reasonable expectations one could argue may be enforced in a free society. In all reality, this jobs are closing down because all work conditions would be deemed unsafe at the moment however some goods and services are deemed irreplaceable in a time of crisis. The logic behind not allowing workers to return to the workforce is seemingly a violation of freedom, however does the act then of knowingly participating in dangerous activity not then violate the rights of freedom of others? Ultimately, there certainly be deliberation either way, however I come to the conclusion that the violation of restricting the work force by deeming businesses essential is less of a violation of one's freedoms than it would be to knowingly place a society in more danger. 

    Another effect of the Pandemic, was the implementation of a new social norm which many groups have called to as yet another restriction of one's freedom. This of course is the normalization of mask wearing throughout the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, mask wearing was seen as something that was done only by those who were at serious risk for illness, flash forward to now where many states have mask mandates requiring them be worn in any sort of public gathering location. Overall, these masks have had a massive impact on society, one crowd seeing them as a potential risk limiter to be used in order to slow the spread of this virus, while others see this item as a symbol of the loss of their freedom. See, many believe that the wearing of masks signifies the loss of ones rights potentially in some kind of gesture of conformity to government regulation. This seems to be yet another situation where it could certainly be argued that masks themselves are in some way a restriction of one's freedoms,  my opinion is that it is a far greater violation of rights to potentially endanger another individuals life through the act of essentially ignoring safety guidelines for seeing those guidelines as a restriction of one's own freedoms. In a somewhat paradoxical manner it may seem, I do believe it is devaluing of others freedoms to ignore this request to participate in this act that one may see as a minor restriction of freedom.