How Much Would You Pay To Escape Australia’s COVID ‘Ring of Steel’?

We all know freedom isn’t free, but its actual price has long been a mystery.

That’s no longer the case thanks to the work of three Australian researchers who have estimated out how much people are willing to pay for the sweet blessing of liberty by comparing changes in home prices and rents in and outside of areas affected by their country’s strictest pandemic lockdown regime.

Beginning in March 2020, the government of the Australian state of Victoria ordered businesses statewide to close and people to shelter in their homes except when engaging in a few permitted activities like receiving medical care or shopping for essential goods.

These restrictions were eased in June. But a second wave of COVID-19 cases in July saw the Victorian government impose another lockdown regime, this time with a crucial difference.

Everything inside the boundaries of Metropolitan Melbourne, the state’s largest city, was subject to draconian “Stage 4” restrictions that prohibited pretty much all social activity. People were even prevented from travelling more than five kilometers from their homes. – READ MORE