Description

The model shows Covid-19 situations in Burnie, Tasmania. Under such circumstances, how the state government deals with the pandemic and how economy changes will be illustrated. The relationship between government policy and economic activities under Covid-19 outbreaks will be explained through different variables.

Assumptions

Government policy negatively affects Covid-19 outbreaks and economic activities.

Covid-19 outbreaks also has negative effects on economic growth.

Parameters

There are several fixed and adjusted variables.

1.     COVID-19 Outbreaks

Fixed variables: infection rate, recovery rate

Adjusted variables: immunity loss rate

2.     Government Policy

Adjusted variables: lockdown, social distancing, testing, vaccination

3.     Economic impact

Fixed variables: tourism

Adjusted variables: economic growth rate

Interesting Insights

Tourism seems to be the most effective way to bring back economic growth in Tasmania, and it takes time to recover from Covid-19.

Government policies tend to have negative influences on economic growth.

THE NEW SCIENCE OF PLEASURE Daniel L. McFadden NBER Working Paper 18687

Public utilities do not need to make a profit. They can concentrate on providing a quality service, a public good. By contrast, the primary objective of private utilities is not to provide a public good, but profit and profitability. This simple CLD tries to show the conflict that can arise from this and a hidden dynamic, a reinforcing feedback loop, that can lead to disaster. Unfortunately, there are examples where failure in infrastructure maintenance has led to disaster. On the 9th of July 2009, the German newspaper 'Welt Online' reported that the authorities in Berlin had to intervene and force the company that was running Berlin's S-Bahn (suburban rail service) to withdraw half of all the city's trains from service because they were considered unsafe! Something similar happened in the UK where failure to maintain rail tracks led to serious accidents. 

Modern industrial civilisation has created massive interdependencies which define it and without which it could not function. We all depend on industrial farming to produce the food we eat, we depend on gasoline being available at the gas station,  on the availability of electricity and even on the bread supplied by the local baker. Naturally, we tend to support the institutions that supply the amenities and goods to which we have become accustomed: if we get our food from the local supermarket, it is likely that we would be opposed to it’s closure. This means that the economic system that relies on continuous growth enjoys implicit societal support and that nothing short of environmental disaster or a shortage of essential raw materials will impede it’s growing indefinitely. It is not hard to work out the consequences of this situation!