Economics and health care

This is the last free summer of my foreseeable future. I figure next summer I'll be working for a law firm somewhere. The summer after that I'll be working for a law firm somewhere. And the summer after that I'll be working for a law firm somewhere. That's as far as my foreseeable future goes. Depressing, I know.

So, I've tried to do some things this summer that I probably won't be able to do during those lame-o, law-firm summers. Biggest thing on the list has been to spend lots of time with my wife and baby. That's been fantastic and needs to be the topic of its own blog entry on another day. Another thing I've done (and which will be the topic of this blog entry) is spend some quality time with books. P.J. O'Rourke (whoever that is) said that you should "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." And that's great, but I haven't worried about that much. Instead, I've just been reading stuff that I like.

Well, turns out that I like books (and blogs) on economics. In my modest opinion, the discipline of economics is incredible. It isn't interested in your political persuasions, but in truth. It recognizes (indeed it teaches) that motivations rarely equal outcomes. And it opens your eyes to new and fresh ways of thinking.

With the help of economics I'm presently persuaded that for the greater part the government bailouts were/are a bad idea, school vouchers would greatly improve our schools, marijuana ought to be legalized, and the fervor over immediately capping carbon emissions to reduce global warming is largely unnecessary.

Yeah, I know, what in the world made me think that reading about this sort of stuff would be better than all the great novels out there? To answer that, I'm really not sure. But I have done a bit of novel reading as well.

Anyway, I see now that my wife is getting a small but faithful group to follow "Our Story" and I'd like you all to know who this person is that she married. So, check out this link if you've got some time. It's about Obamacare and why we should all be VERY skeptical of it. A Harvard economist wrote the article and it's a great example of how economics can really open our eyes.