15 years ago
March 2007,
“Despite all the talk about the positives of altruism and the fact that they are paid well, nobody has said that surgeons should be tainted. No one seems to care that biotech companies donate rather than sell their services. While patients and doctors rejoice at new technology being introduced to the market, they resent the idea of having to pay donors directly.
Kerry Howley
“Who owns your body parts?”
“Milton Friedman’s relentless belief in the power of a free people and the justice of a free society had vivid real-world effects. Friedman’s monetary ideas have allowed us to avoid being forced into joining the armed forces. Friedman’s money ideas have made the difference that our cash is now worth a fraction of what it was one year ago. Friedman’s monetary ideas have helped many people to appreciate arguments that government policies are not as inexcusable or unquestionably wrong as before.
Brian Doherty
Milton Friedman: The Life and Times of Milton Friedman
20 years ago
March 2002
Some panics disappear quickly and leave no institutional legacy. Some panics disappear quickly, but others remain in law forever. Even small panics can have a lasting legal impact. In the late 1980s, a few unrelated shootings were misinterpreted as a new trend. Road WarriorThe California bloodbath was not the same as in previous years. California still passed three bills to combat freeway violence, which included a minor measure to beef up highway patrol and a bill adding five years to the sentences of convicted freeway gunners.
Jesse Walker
“Panic Attacks”
25 years ago
March 1997
Modern-day regulator safety mavens believe that “if it saves one person, it is worth it.” This powerful expression resonates for all who value human life. This has been a great totem for keeping safety regulations cost-benefit-analyzed at bay.
Brian Doherty
“Airbags & Gasbags”
Anti-gay conservatives face far greater threats from stable, well-to-do same-sex married couples. More than the anonymous sex at a gay bar or exhibitionists in leather jock straps and barefoot, no other thing would compromise the official drug policy more than many law-abiding citizens admitting they use marijuana.
Virginia Postrel
“Reefer Madness”
It was 30 years ago
March 1992
So the answer to the question “How do they do that in Canada?” is, they don’t. By limiting certain procedures, limiting technology, compensating doctors and limiting their access to diagnostic equipment, the total cost of healthcare can be controlled. This supply restriction has tangible consequences in the form queues and waiting lists for surgeries.
Michael Walker
“Cold Reality”
This was 40 years back
March 1982
“The notion of a housing shortage as the rationale for imposing rent control is absurd not only because one can expect that underpricing any consumer good is guaranteed to exacerbate its scarcity but because demonstrably in every locale that has invoked this rationale there was no housing shortage before rent control was imposed and there came to be one afterward.…. Anybody who’s lived in rent-controlled cities knows that most of the rent-control’s beneficiaries are not poor and many of their ‘victims,’ which are landlords, aren’t wealthy.
Peter Salins
“Worldwide woes about Rent Control”