We debate as if there are only two paths: A total authoritarian lockdown, or one big college break beach party that tosses all precautions to the wind. No. We must #FreethePeople to get essential economic functions back up using common sense and human innovation to keep us safe.

We are told to defer to government bureaucrats and politicians who have failed, catastrophically, every step of the way. The #WHO lied at the behest of the Chinese government. The #CDC failed at testing. The #FDA blocked private alternatives to government tests....

#Fauci told us in late January that the risk was “very low.” Congress has incentivized essential workers to walk away, with new benefits totaling (with state payouts) $55,000. Small business loans are impossible to get, and corporate bailouts have empty planes to flying nowhere.

So to our government overlords, I beg of you, please stop helping so the rest of us can 1. keep people safe, 2. rebuild the distributed production of food to keep people fed, 3. and let people work so we can all afford to keep keep health care workers paid and hospitals open.

I know politicians will never let this happen. They will come up with new “bold plans” that create more destructive, if unintended, consequences. Because to rebuild right would require those who screwed up to admit past mistakes, and demonstrate a new humility moving forward.

So the rest of us, still free people, will have to insist that our “leaders” stand down, so that we can, together, do the hard work of putting things back together again.