There is a big problem with the argument that the virus would have destroyed the economy no matter what — look at how people are behaving in the places that have reopened. They were behaving that way before the lockdowns too. Restaurants are packed.

People just don’t want to hide in their homes from this. If they had been doing that, the lockdown orders would have been unnecessary and superfluous.

It’s fair to say that the virus would have damaged the economy, but it’s just not reasonable to believe that damage would have been as bad as, or worse than, the damage caused by the virus plus the lockdowns.