Back in the 1940s economist F.A. Hayek and historian Jacque Barzun warned us about the technocratic state. Both men warned that the collective wisdom of an informed society is far more accurate than so-called experts. Their reasoning was that an informed society was able to see a larger picture than the narrow focus of specialized experts.

Those words of wisdom are certainly applicable in 2021 when discussing to endless and tiresome proclamations of Dr. Anthony Fauci. While I certainly do not question his expertise as an epidemiologist he has no insight into the economic, psychological, and sociological results of his dictates.

The numbers are truly frightening:

By August 2020 attempted suicides by children, as well as other forms of self-harm, were up by a staggering 334% from August 2019. As a matter of fact, that number could be higher because the statistic represents only insurance claims of those who were treated by a medical facility. In many cases, because parents may have lost their medical coverage during the lockdowns, professional treatment was never requested.

Do we now need to talk about the cost associated with a majority of our nation’s school-age children missing an entire academic year? Expect standardized testing to be skipped with teachers’ unions and school boards burying the known damage. Unfortunately, missing an entire academic career cannot be undone.

Especially damaged are children that do not have access to laptops and high-speed internet. Many school districts had to water-down online curriculums so those students would not fall further behind. Instead, everyone got a poor education for an entire academic year.

Turning to adults, 2020 saw a 17% increase in deaths by overdose with suicides not far behind. Sadly, drug overdoses and suicides are only the beginning. Many families and businesses were financially ruined by the dictates of Dr. Fauci and company. For families with young children god only knows what the long-term psychological effects on those children will be. It will be many years before we know.

When one looks at the numbers you quickly discover that this was not the worst pandemic to hit the human race in history. And chances are there will be worse in our future. But, in the past we didn’t have media and technocrats feeding and pushing fear. Fear is being used not to unite Americans, but to divide them. But, ultimately, how many of these technocrats or media types have died or lost their jobs as a result of what they preached? How many of them had to live with the results of their proclamations? They used it as nothing more than a political opportunity to push their favorite candidate.

How many politicians, media types, and technocrats missed a paycheck? How many of them had to take a job like delivering pizzas or such just to put food on the table? How many of them missed mortgage or rent payments?

Our leadership class insulated themselves from all of this. Most of their children attend private schools whose teachers are not part of the teachers’ unions and exempt from many state mandates.

It is easy for technocrats and politicians exercise power without a single concern for the effects. I have to wonder how much Dr. Fauci and company thinks about the economic results of his words. But, no matter how you look at it, it makes the words “we are all in this together” sound awfully disingenuous.