RWL Newsletter #102
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! School is officially out! Finals are over, grades are in, the kids are all gone, and the streets of Durham are like a ghost town. Today was my first “official” day of break because I finished up some housekeeping on the semester yesterday. To celebrate, I spent my day reading Tyler Cowen’s excellent Stubborn Attachments. It’s a thoughtful book that combines economics, philosophy, and policy, and I highly recommend it. Cowen’s style is at once deep and easy to read.
Today is the winter solstice. It’s exciting to realize we have made it to the nadir and the light will begin to return now. Nevertheless, there is something special about winter light. I particularly like how it illuminates my kitchen in the morning.
There was big news this week with a judge ruling the ACA is unconstitutional. I didn’t find anything more than the usual reactive stuff, so I am staying away from that topic, though it is an important one. Here instead are some interesting links I found this week. Enjoy!
Read
What: Wall Street Journal, The Loneliest Generation: Americans, More Than Ever, Are Aging Alone
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-loneliest-generation-americans-more-than-ever-are-aging-alone-11544541134?mod=e2fb&page=1&pos=1
Why: I shared an article about cutting last week, and this week I was struck by this article on loneliness. Loneliness can have a direct effect on health, and it can have a direct effect on healthcare utilization. The elderly and isolated often use healthcare as a means of human contact, which is a costly solution to chronic loneliness. Like many chronic conditions, the treatment is not necessarily medical.
Watch
What: Tyler Cowen, The Economics of Choosing the Right Career (7 min)
https://youtu.be/2kOQMkFE1E8
Why: Here’s a short video from Tyler Cowen (whose book I mention above) about job opportunities for recent college graduates and the changing economy. As some of you know, this is one of my research areas. This video is a couple of years old, but not much has changed. Cowen has a previous book which I think is excellent (Average is Over) in which he goes into much more detail about the future of the labor market, but the gist of his vision is that people who are able to work well with technology, to partner with it and complement it, will do very well in the future. Computer programmers, obviously, but also healthcare workers who use AI-assisted diagnostic tools, for example.
Listen
What: Today, Explained, Humans 2.0 (24 min)
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/today-explained/e/57487302
Why: “A Chinese scientist says he has genetically engineered two human babies, with another on the way. Is this the beginning of the end?” In addition to the ACA ruling, this is rumored to have happened. This podcast is an excellent "explainer" on the state of genetic engineering.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau