If we were to rely upon the press itself to tell us what the results of the government shutdown were, we’d have to conclude that it saves lives. For we’re being told by varied newspapers that three people have died in the understaffed national parks. Given that the average is six deaths in any one week, that would mean that 15 lives have been saved this past three weeks by there being no nonessential federal workers in those parks.

That, of course, is to be facile. But other than the toilets backing up in those same parks, we do seem to be remarkably short of bad outcomes from this process. Sure, there are a lot of people complaining they’re not getting their paychecks, but us not having to pay bureaucrats is a saving to us taxpayers, not a cost.