Believers in free markets are well-represented in Congress. Among our ranks are accomplished doctors such as Sen. Rand Paul, and MIT graduates such as Rep. Thomas Massie.

Socialists, meanwhile, have Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who just told Vice TV that people should protest capitalism by boycotting the economy after it reopens post-coronavirus.

"When we talk about this idea of reopening society, you know, only in America does the president, when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean, 'Go back to work,'” Ocasio-Cortez said . “When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a lot people should just say, 'No — we’re not going back to that.'”

“We’re not going back to working 70-hour weeks just so that we could put food on the table and not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives,” she concluded .

AOC is actually the best and brightest the socialist movement has to offer... what does that say? https://t.co/8IP3OLCc4I — Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) April 22, 2020

First, a quick fact-check is in order: Only 6.6% of Americans work more than 60 hours a week. An even smaller portion must be hitting the 70+ hour mark. So despite Ocasio-Cortez’s hyperbolic claim, this is not what most people will be returning to.

The congresswoman also has no basis for her claim that the few people working so many hours still do “not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives.” Assuming Ocasio-Cortez means financial security, that simply isn’t true. Many of those who work 60+ hours weekly work in medicine, law, finance, or other well-paying fields , according to Harvard Business Review.

Another key point Ocasio-Cortez misses here is that for many people, work is what gives them dignity and purpose. There is value in a job or career beyond simply the dollar amount one brings home in exchange for one's labor. Whether it’s teachers, coaches, or cafe owners, countless people whose jobs have been put on hold have spoken out not just about the economic toll, but about how they miss the work itself. They don’t want to “protest” by staying on their couches to support some ideology; they want to get back to contributing to their community.

This is just the latest in an endless string of basic errors and evidence of a woeful misunderstanding of economics by Ocasio-Cortez, who is supposed to have studied the subject in college. That is no excuse for so badly misreading the state of our country amid a crisis.

The millions of people put out of work and the millions of business owners whose dreams have been shattered by the coronavirus do not want to protest for the congresswoman’s socialist delusions. They want to get back to their jobs.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect 2019 figures for the portion of the workforce working more than 60 hours a week, when it originally reported the 2015 numbers.