A “nation” is not a large individual, but is made up of a multitude of individuals, each with their own preferences, values, and circumstances, each different and unique. Economics is the science that studies the social consequences of individual choices. After all, all choices are personal, even the choices of politicians and bureaucrats. The political majority is made up of individuals. If someone is the nation’s doctor, he should be familiar with economics if he studies the social consequences of the Second Amendment, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, or any of them.
The US “Surgeon General” officially defines himself, presumably under some law or regulation, as follows:National DoctorHis office is a strange creature. history It also reveals:
As Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the Surgeon General oversees the activities of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS), an elite group of more than 6,000 uniformed officers operating throughout the Federal Government whose mission is to protect, promote, and improve the health of the nation.
Like many public health officials, he and his office are no strangers to economics. His latest “advice” is: Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis in AmericaWhile the Surgeon General has spoken out on many topics and lifestyles, he has never discussed the societal impact of free speech or due process. (The current Surgeon General, however, Social media and Health misinformationHis recommendations on gun violence do not include the word “economics” and appear to refer only to two limited economic studies. Did I miss something in the report’s 110 footnotes (with no separate bibliography)? In any case, the Surgeon General appears to believe that ordinary individuals are doctors of a larger organism, of which the organs or cells are.
Economics and other rational choice approaches to society have undermined the pre-scientific idea that society could be studied as a biological organism. The great French literary critic, historian of political thought, essayist, and academician Émile Faguet was not an economist, but he knew enough to ridicule the kind of “zoological politics” that social organismism implied. “You think you are a man, but in fact you are a foot,” he wrote.You are deceiving a man; you are a fool.” (LiberalismParis, 1902/1903). My Independent Review article “The Impossibility of Populism” explains the dangers of this pre-scientific error.
Of course, we can expect individuals to make informed choices about the trade-offs between risk and well-being, especially when children are indirect victims of the risks. Minimal government intervention in the form of unbiased information may be justified where possible. But unbiased information and the protection of children are not the aims of public health. economist“Trans medical research is being manipulated” examines a classic case that illustrates the meaning of information and research in the public health movement.
What we now call “public health” began in the early 20th century.Number It began in the 18th century, and a little earlier in Germany. It is not a scientific endeavor, but an ideological and political movement. (I refer to this idea as Regulation article, “Public health risk” and the Reason Foundation article “Public health models and related government interventionsDuring the Progressive Era, the public health movement and at least one Surgeon General supported eugenics and forced sterilization.UVA and the History of Racial Disparities: Eugenics, Racial Integration Laws, and Health DisparitiesP. Preston Reynolds, a professor of medicine and nursing at the University of Virginia, said the fifth U.S. Surgeon General, Hugh Smith Cumming (see featured image in this post), along with two assistant surgeons general,
They brought eugenic racism to the tobacco fields of rural Alabama, where they conducted the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, following nearly 400 black men for 40 years to document how the disease manifested in untreated black people. The tragedy is that these men were never informed about the disease or offered treatment, despite the discovery of penicillin as a treatment for syphilis after World War II.
Public health is a meddlesome movement that seeks to use emergencies to strengthen state power. On March 13, 2020, just two hours before President Donald Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who had already declared youth e-cigarette use an “epidemic,” spoke at an anti-tobacco conference. He declared:
It is important to understand that more people will die from smoking-related illnesses in the next hour than have died from COVID-19 so far in the United States.
So much for bureaucratic wisdom. In many ways, “public health” is a label for a fashionable lifestyle forcefully imposed by the government. It is government imposition with a human face. It is a surreal experience to watch the Surgeon General, dressed in the prestigious uniform of a Vice Admiral, give his opinion on what lifestyle choices the nation’s patients should make.Surgeon General warns US gun violence is a public health crisis“, The Wall Street Journal(June 26, 2024)
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Current Surgeon General. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/images/vadm-murthy.jpghttp://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/biographies/biosg.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37966238
