TLDR: The minimum wage aims to fight poverty, inequality, and labor exploitation; however, these problems can be more directly addressed via the earned income tax credit and stronger antitrust enforcement, without the market distortions of a minimum wage.

A common proclamation I hear among liberal politicians and occasionally in health policy lectures is that “healthcare is a human right.” It sounds righteous and true, but is it really so indisputable? In this essay, I’m going to explain why this view isn't quite as defensible as it may seem and argue ...

In the past few years, I’ve observed a growing rift in medicine between the medical establishment and what I will call the “contrarians.” Of course, there have always been medical contrarians, but the COVID pandemic brought this divide to the forefront in our public discourse ...

My interest in the topic of longevity was piqued after reading David Sinclair’s Lifespan two years ago, so I was excited to dig back into the subject with Peter Attia’s Outlive. While both books are very scientific, Outlive comes off as a more conservative, sober analysis of what is currently known in the field ...

In the last quarter of my undergrad at Cal Poly (Spring 2020), I took a social ethics elective, during which we read the opening chapter to Peter Singer’s 1975 book, Animal Liberation. This book is widely credited for starting the Animal Liberation movement, including the founding of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ...

Through 23 chapters, 75 charts, and 450 pages, the Harvard psychologist, Steven Pinker, lays out the data-driven and philosophical case for why humanity has consistently improved its lot over the past 250 years due to the enlightenment ideals of science, reason, humanism, and progress ...  

The Great Escape is Sir Angus Deaton’s story of how human civilizations have overcome and failed to overcome poverty over the past 250 years. As morbid as it sounds ...  

This is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for quite a while, and it was worth the wait. However, 600 pages of philosophy is no easy undertaking, and I would not recommend this book unless you are really, genuinely interested in the subject (and have a lot of time of your hands) ...  

If you ask people what they think is the most pressing problem facing humanity at this time (which is something I do sometimes) one of the most common answers is climate change. Now, this may be due to the fact that most people I talk to are liberal, and most liberals ...

I'm sharing this because it is the clearest explanation of how my background led me into the fields of health policy and health economics, and why I decided to purpose a PhD. It was submitted in December 2021.