"with its mix of capitalism and socialism."

So by what objective criterion do you figure out
1. whether any given market transaction is within the remit of capitalism?
2. what is the difference between the market price and the alleged "reasonable" price?
in any given case?

Prices do not form by a process of consulting some anonymous self-opinionated nobody on the internet named Paul1405.

How are the capitalists, or the consumers, to know in advance whether their actions in buying or selling, are going to meet with Your Serene Eminences Approval?

And what human action does government NOT have a right to control, according to you?

mhaze,

Lockdowns do work, my great mate in India locked down his estates before any Government authorities did in their jurisdictions.
Though for him it was easy as he is, in reality, a dictator.

He stockpiled all necessities and forbad leaving the estates on pain of not being allowed back in the foreseeable future, and forbad all entry.
He has the manpower (and the arms) to enforce his decisions and no one on the estates has contracted the virus.

Admittedly this is an extreme case of isolationism.

I have lost acquaintances in Delhi and Mumbai and a couple of close friends, because despite the lockdowns there is considerable unavoidable contact.

In my area the delivery trucks of the grocery chain I use for home delivery, internet ordered food are all driven by Indians. I presume they are Sikhs, as they all wear turbans. They have done a good job, & a couple have become friends. One recently brought his son along to have a look at my remote control planes.

However with the current virus situation in India, & the frequency of Indians flitting "home" for a visit, I am becoming slightly concerned they these drivers are much more likely to have contact with an infection source. Evidently our bureaucrats have been less than diligent in minimising these visits, & have not been protecting our safety as they should have.

I am considering changing my grocery supplier so as to avoid contact with this possible source of infection.

It really is so annoying that we can't trust our extremely well paid bureaucrats to ever get anything properly right.

Yes, Hasbeen, I hear you.

However according to the high expertise of Dr Yeadon, formerly of Pfizer, and whose video I posted in the Forrum, the whole idea that healthy carriers can infect healthy non-carriers is a piece of blatanty misinformation.

Covid is not some magical exception to the general rules of pathology. Yes, *sick* people can infect healthy people. And healthy carriers - asymptomatic people - can't infect healthy people. Covid is no exception to this general rule. It is, after all, a species of flu. There may be a small window where someone 'coming down with' it can spead it without knowing.

But basically the premise of the masking mandates, the lockdowns, and covid policy in general is this piece of facile propaganda and misinformation. It was based on a handful of unscientific anecdotes, which have never been subjected to critical scientific scrutiny.

But for some mysterious reason, you won't hear about that on the ABC sevel o'clock news.

There are two plagues. The plague of absolutist control freaks totalitarians who have a conflict of interest with the sane, non-lunatic part of the population at whose expense they violate their liberties. This includes their propaganda arm like the ABC who belong on the gallows with them.

And there's the plague of docile sheeple who obedientily swallow down the propaganda these totalitarian fasicsts are brainwashing into them, by the unarticulated ever-present assumption that government has the right to do anything it wants, no matter how abusive or unconstitutional, that they are all-caring, all-knowing and all-capable, and that they are our saviour and redemption.

... well paid bureaucrats to ever get anything properly right.
Hasbeen,
There have been & I have no doubt there are many but they get ousted as soon as they show any sign of efficiency that could back-fire on the inefficient !