This is how austerity works. What does this story have to do with austerity, some people might ask?

Read it again and tell me: do these policies make it more or less likely that people would go to the hospital instead of seeking home remedies or online treatments? Would you take an elderly relative or a small child to that hospital? Well, that’s the whole point.

Far fewer children are in public schools today than they were before COVID. Far fewer people seek medical care because they don’t want to be locked up and isolated. “Normally, I’d go to the hospital for this but these days. . . you know,” is a phrase I’ve been hearing from normie acquaintances. “I never thought I’d even consider anything but a public school for my kid but these days. . . you know.”

The Soviets knew how this worked. You simply need to make the free service you offer so low-quality, so intolerable, and so fraught with humiliation and hurt that people will find a way to do without it.

One thing I do like about the COVIDocracy is that “social distancing” is still mandated. Nobody observes it any more. On campus, people huddle together all the time. They knowingly break the rules. This is great because it teaches them to exercise their own judgment and value it over that of an external authority. Sadly, it’s going to cost a lot to turn people from sheep to humans but whatever works.

I can’t imagine using the words “a special treat” with anybody who is not a child. This cloying, infantilizing language is very common on the left, and I detest it.