To the editor:

The choices we have to make today regarding the coronavirus remind me of the theory of the 19th century Austrian economists, that humans make choices between security and freedom. They trade part of their security for freedom and vice versa.

During World War II, I fought for freedom at great risk to my security. On May 5, 1945, Germany capitulated and I won my freedom. My whole company was drunk for three days. We again submitted to the security of the military discipline and assumed the duties of occupying Germany.

Today, as declared by President Donald Trump, we again are at war and he is the “war president.” The freedom we are fighting for is “the freedom of the market.” The choices people have to make are either security in staying home or freedom to participate in economic activity. For working class people, the choice is between two insecurities: danger of infection or poverty.

Trump declared that as in any war there will be losses. Perhaps 100,000 deaths. Those will be the “losers.” Trump’s theory is that every society is composed of “winners and losers.” Each category is inherited. “What my father really gave me,” he tweeted in 2013, “is a good (great) brain, motivation, and the benefit of his experience — unlike the haters and losers (lazy).”

Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz,

Lawrence