Coronavirus will normalize state involvement in all economies

As the pandemic spread from nation to nation and waged a global war on health, economies were also severely damaged. During that period, 22 million Americans alone filed for unemployment benefits.^[1] Worldwide, as stock markets underwent a tremendous shock, questions were raised by many. Some compared this situation to the Recession of 2008 while others thought this could be worse than the Great Depression of 1932. All of these events, though varied, have one thing in common: They allowed the state to become involved in their economies. Coronavirus will normalize such state involvement in all economies because many businesses will fail if the government does not intervene. When it comes to state involvement, two important approaches need to be addressed. The first one is laissez-faire which is the concept that all capitalistic societies must let economies run uninterrupted and that in the long run, any market failure will fix itself. However, this policy was challenged by John Keynes who explained that in some extraordinary circumstances this will not hold true and that the government needs to become involved in order to rescue the economy. The pandemic has ushered such a time where government intervention is crucial. From dictating when businesses can open, what sectors of the economy need to be prioritized over others to how much aid each division will get, the government now has the power to determine all of these things. Furthermore, this pandemic will not only have temporary effects on the economy, which has led the government to spend almost 2 trillion in stimulus money, but it will also have shockwave long-term effects. For a prolonged period of time, economies will depend on the government and this co-management will normalize state involvement.