Why didn& #39;t the Spanish Flu lockdowns cause unprecedented unemployment?

This strikes me as a critically important question.

We know why the economy of 1918 was more robust to, say, an electromagnetic pulse.

Why was it more robust to a pandemic? Because we want that robustness.

My hunch is the economy was just different then.

More autarkic, more farmers, more factories

Less trade, less travel, far less *international* trade & travel, less services, less entertainment, less higher ed

Basically, less trade and more production? https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1246303383377436673">https://twitter.com/balajis/s...