I get e-mail: July Econlib newsletter

July 5, 2010

A bit on the right, but generally pointing to useful current stuff for economics teachers, the EconLib Newsletter for July 2010 is out — download it to your e-book for beach or desert reading:

Dear Readers,

Around the world in the last three decades, governments have made dramatic moves toward more economic freedom. While retaining most of the welfare state, governments have cut marginal tax rates from the Olympian heights they had reached in the 1960s and 1970s, deregulated whole industries, and privatized major swaths of the economy. Scott Sumner details the “neoliberal” movement and shows that countries that moved closest to economic freedom also made major gains in per capita income. Read it here:

The Unacknowledged Success of Neoliberalism
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2010/Sumnerneoliberalism.html

This month, Anthony de Jasay extends his series, asking

Is Society a Great Big Insurance Company?
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2010/Jasayinsurance.html

On EconTalk this week, Russ Roberts and Arnold Kling talk about the Unseen World of Banking, Mortgages, and Government:

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/07/kling_on_the_un.html

Other recent podcasts include Caplan on Richter and Hayek, Sumner on growth and economic policy, and Blakley on fashion and intellectual property. Check them out at http://www.econtalk.org.

On EconLog, David Henderson discusses the EPA, Bryan Caplan reviews whether students like school, and Arnold Kling talks about green jobs. Read all the latest on EconLog at:

http://econlog.econlib.org

This month in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics we feature “Fiscal Sustainability,” by Laurence J. Kotlikoff , and the biography of Milton Friedman, whose birthday is later this month. See

http://www.econlib.org/library/CEE.html

We welcome all our new registrants and wish all a fine summer.

Lauren Landsburg, Editor
Russ Roberts, Associate Editor
David R. Henderson, Features Editor
Library of Economics and Liberty
http://www.econlib.org

Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, History | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Chris Rock: Funny, but wrong in his slam of medical science

January 1, 2010

I usually like Chris Rock’s comedy. He’s profane, so you can’t use it in class. But he’s often quite witty while exposing  key problems of society.

I bumped into a YouTube video of a few minutes of Rock’s rant against doctors and science at an odd site called HealthNoob.com. On the one hand, Rock is ripping off Voltaire and others from the 18th century who noted that doctors of that time rarely cured anyone — without antibiotics and a very incomplete understanding of the human body and diseases, how could they?

On the other hand, the idea that physicians don’t want to cure people gained considerable traction among African Americans over the past 40 years, especially fueled by comedians like Dick Gregory who, God bless him otherwise, thought most of the medical establishment conspired against African Americans at every turn. Rock builds on that platform. This is not a good trend. Especially to the extent that wrong views of medicine discourage African Americans from seeking health care that could prevent serious disease until it’s too late, spreading disinformation does no one any good.

Past that, such comedy encourages crazies to crawl out of the woodwork and spread even more disinformation. For example, in the comments at HealthNoob.com, some wag claims that DDT caused polio in the 1930s, apparently ignorant of the fact that DDT was not available for use until after 1939, and not available for use on farms until 1946.  This is grotesque urban legend.

Here’s Rock’s rant, below (not safe for work or school due to profanity); below that, the response I left at HealthNoob.com (which is “in moderation” as I write this).

Give us your views in comments, will you? Is Rock way off base? Is his comedy routine here more damaging than funny?

At HealthNoob.com, I responded:

January 1st, 2010 at 10:46 pm

This conversation is certainly deteriorating.

A couple of observations:

Polio is caused by a virus. No one is sure exactly where it came from, or why it wasn’t more widespread prior to the 20th century. It well may be that it was around, but harmless, until a 20th century mutation caused it to become deadly. In any case, we know it’s a virus, and that’s why and how the vaccines worked against it. It’s not caused by chemical exposure, though some exposures may insult human immune systems and make some people more prone to get the disease the virus causes.

2. We know it wasn’t DDT, too. DDT was not available for use against insects by anyone prior to 1942. Polio was rampant before then (my brother caught polio in 1939). DDT was not available for use outside the military prior to 1946.

3. Diseases cured by medical care? Streps and bacterial infections, including tuberculosis (save for the drug-resistant kinds). Leukemia. Measles, almost. Polio wasn’t counted as eradicated until very recently (if at all). Goiter and iodine deficiency ($0.15 per ton of salt to “iodize” it, and cure goiter; the cheapest public health action ever).

4. Do you want to know how good cures work? The American Dental Association pushed for fluoridation to help prevent and cure dental caries. It worked fantastically. Now dentists spend more time fixing other stuff, and dental caries is basically a disease of the past — except for those people who don’t take care of their teeth or have some other special weakness to decay. Of course, were Rock to do something on that, he’d probably complain that fluoride causes disease instead of prevents it.

5. Ever heard of Voltaire? In the 18th century, he noted that doctors never cure anyone, but just hold the hand of the patient until the patient gets better, or dies. That changed with the advent of antibiotics. Interesting to hear Chris Rock rip off Voltaire.

16 Comments | Health care, Hoaxes, Science, Urban Legend | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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