By Nathaniel Counts Politics, theoretically at least, is a process designed to enhance the sense of wellbeing of its citizens. The success of this process, the amount of wellbeing that can be created, is hamstrung by biology – we have basal levels of felt wellbeing that are determined through some amount of nature and nurture,…
By Nathaniel Counts High school health classes that are effective in preventing high-risk behaviors employ two educational models: the social influences model and the life skills model. The social influences model teaches children about social norms and techniques for resisting social influences. The life skills focuses on developing child autonomy, self-esteem, and self-confidence to help…
By Nathaniel Counts In our legal system, colleges may not make admissions decisions in order to ameliorate historical (or presumably other) inequalities, but may make decisions that take into account the particular situation of the applicant or that strive to create a diverse student body. Justice Powell rejected the former two goals in Part IV…
By Nathaniel Counts We live in a time when increasingly our personal information is publicly available on the internet. This personal information includes our names and phone numbers, things we’ve written and things we’ve done, along with a good deal of information that only exists because we interact with others on the internet – thoughts…
By Nathaniel Counts In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill asserted that “[t]he only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” This has since become known as the harm principle and is foundational for much of American political discourse,…
By Nathaniel Counts If, out of concern for public health, the government banned potato chips today, a lot of people would get very angry. Only some of these people would be angry because they missed potato chips. For most it would be the principle of the thing – the government should not interfere with our…
By Nathaniel Counts During the government shutdown in October 2013, a battle in part over the future of healthcare reform, a non-negligible amount of media attention focused on the shutdown of public parks. Perhaps because the parks were the least expected casualty of the shutdown, or the most ludicrous – many are, after all, large…
By Nathaniel Counts Managed care and integration of primary care and mental health services are major foci of the Affordable Care Act, especially as more practices are encouraged to become Patient-Centered Medical Homes. In managed care, vitals are used to track progress, and case managers can look over an individual’s blood pressure, weight, and blood-sugar…
By Nathaniel Counts Health insurers are beginning to realize the importance of downstream cost-saving. By paying to keep people healthy now, health insurers avoid major expenditures later when they must cover chronic conditions and hospitalizations. For example, by paying for nutrition counseling and fitness programs for prediabetics, health insurers can reduce the rate of transition…
By Nathaniel Counts Human rights disaggregates otherwise related issues into separate rights. We discuss rights to health, education, housing, association, etc., and, in countries where these rights are codified, we litigate each one separately in the courts. We also know that each of these issues for which there is a corresponding right is, to some…
