- Cost and benefits of legalizing pot: The economic benefits are broadly distributed, while the social costs may be more concentrated among individuals who use marijuana heavily. Recommended.
- Capitation v. fee-for-service medicine: fewer visits and fever services.
- Alex Tabarrok on “deaths of despair.”
- Ending homelessness: the case for “Housing First.” Timothy Taylor is always good, but I think I disagree with this.
Category: John C. Goodman
Thursday Links
- Bob Graboyes: Free the nurses
- Bernie Sanders gets something right: nonprofit hospitals are getting undeserved tax breaks.
- The uneasy case for the government’s war on pain killers.
- WSJ: Americans have earlier access to new treatments than the rest of the world.
- AEI article: Less than 15 percent of the average physician’s time is spent in direct contact with patients. It’s no wonder that two-thirds of physicians are burned out.
- The presence of chief diversity officers in K-12 schools leads to lower test scores among black and Hispanic students and wider achievement gaps between minorities and white students.
Wednesday Links
- Tyler Cowen on an early study by Claudia Goldin explaining inequality: returns to education is the culprit.
- Case and Deaton: Life expectancy at age 25 for those with four-year college degrees rose to 59 years on the eve of the pandemic, up from 54 years in 1992. But for those without college degrees, life expectancy reached its peak around 2010 and has been falling ever since. (NYT)
- Matt Yglesias rejects the Case/Deaton argument for “deaths of despair.”
- 20 percent of adolescents had symptoms of major depressive disorder during the pandemic, but less than half got treatment.
- 45% of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee have conflicts of interest. That may be why the government published the food pyramid that caused so many people to get fat.
The World is Getting Safer
A graph you don’t tend to see in the mainstream media. Thanks to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity for the pointer.