For the Common Good

Something strange is going on in Norway. The political elite has decided to lock down the country for weeks on end. This is supposedly for the common good of the people, but the economic destruction that this decision entails are such that it is hard to see exactly who will benefit from this in the long run. We are talking mass layoffs, bankruptcies, misery and suicides that will most likely dwarf the immediate health benefits from the lock-down. The decision is therefore not for the common good. It is to the benefit of the weak and elderly, at the long term cost of the young and healthy.

So, why would the political elite make such a decision? Who exactly are they protecting at this tremendous cost? Could it be that the decision is based on private and immediate priorities of the elite itself? Specifically, is the prime minister protecting herself at the expense of the entire nation? She's after all obese. She might not survive the virus if she catches it. To her, no cost is too big to make sure she doesn't get it, and she bears no economic cost to herself by letting everybody down. Her future is financially secure. Her only concern as far as she is concerned is her own survival.

By Pernille Ingebrigtsen / Arctic Frontiers - http://www.mynewsdesk.com/no/akvaplan-niva/images/erna-solberg-448725, CC BY 3.0, Link