The incentives of the policy makers are misaligned with the needs of the citizenry

A very good piece summarizing many of my sentiments.  From do zoom meetings cause lockdowns? by el gato malo.  

All global research pre-Covid-19 advised against widespread lockdowns.  Yet that was the response pursued by governments nearly everywhere.  Why.

if our elites and knowledge workers had not had the ability to telework, would they ever have championed these unprecedented and contra-indicted pandemic responses?

I think not.  El gato malo elaborates:

the pandemic response did not cause telework.

telework caused the pandemic response.  

Or at least made the policy easier to bear for those implementing the policy.  Though not for everyone else by any means.

“let them use zoom” became the new “let them eat cake” because, let’s face it, it’s sure a lot easier to blather on about social duty and community spirit when your paychecks keep hitting and you get to do it from your comfy home with full pantries.

The rub of the issue is classic economics and incentives.

but it all started because the people who got to make these decisions had a bad incentive set.

[snip] 

the damage is someone else’s problem, and therein lies the crux: when those making policy are not those paying the price for bad policy or being wrong, you get TRULY awful policy.