Years ago I had a great primary care physician. One day I drove to his office and saw him assisting an elderly man walk to his car. Dr. Ingram could have asked his nurse to assist the patient. He could even have ignored the frail patient’s unsteady gait and let him fend for himself. Yet, Dr. Ingram personally helped his elderly patient make it to his car. That impressed me immensely. Not only did he treat the man’s health complaint, he made sure his patient got safely out of the office and on his way home. Nobody paid him for that, he did it out of his desire to help people.
Author: Devon Herrick
Portland Back-Peddles on Public Drug Use
There is an odd theory that making illicit drugs easier to use will make them safer, such as needle exchanges and safe injection sites. Other reformers argue that decriminalizing small quantities will avoid court costs and incarceration costs. Moreover, the proponents of the above theories believe the policy known as The War on Drugs has been ineffective and even racist.
There is another theory, one that is grounded in reason, common sense as well as backed by empirical testing, that demand curves are downward sloping. Similar there is an economic truism that posits if governments wish to encourage some activity, then subsidize it. If government wishes to discourage some activity, then tax it.
Was Obamacare a Plot to Usher in Medicare-for-All?
At the time of the Affordable Care Act’s passage, many suspicious conspiracy theory proponents suggested the goal of Obamacare was to fail in order to usher in a single-payer program of Medicare-for-All. The theory goes something like this: with nowhere to turn except the government, Americans would finally throw up their hands and acquiesce to government intervention. Seniors purportedly all love their Medicare, so why not expand the program to cover everyone?
PreCrime Interdiction: Can Future Criminals be Identified in Kindergarten?
A new economic analysis claims to identify future societal costs of kids with behavior problems in kindergarten (summary here). The analysis estimated costs to society in terms of crime, excess health needs and lost productivity.