Markets at Work
How do you find a male dance partner at a nursing home where women outnumber men 3 to 1? Hire them. (HT to David Henderson)
Who’s your daddy? Do-it-yourself paternity DNA tests now available in New York.
Defensive medicine is the reason for one of every five imaging tests (x-rays, MRIs, CTs, etc.). It accounts for more than one-third of the costs of imaging.
I’m trying to imagine kids going around the neighborhood trying to steal a DNA sample from possible fathers. Maybe there’s a movie in this.
The market for after hours care is yet another example of entrepreneurs stepping up to meet demand.
The do-it-yourself DNA tests are already available in many drugstores. These are not admissible in court to establish paternity, but they are a cheap way to find out if some is likely to be the father before paying for a court-ordered paternity test. When these first came out there were several anecdotes in the newspaper where fathers who suspected children weren’t their biological offspring bought the tests. It typically ended badly for all parties involved.
Can the do-it-yourself paternity test work in reverse? Can fathers try it out on their kids, just to make sure?
I suspect that the amount of defensive medicine has been underestimated.
Did you guys read the whole “male dancer” article? This line struck me:
Paul Hartman, 90, lives at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx, where he has trouble finding someone who meets his requirements of being “50 to 70 with sex appeal.” He goes to beading classes and has made dozens of pieces of jewelry, but has no one to give them to.
“I’m outnumbered and I’m still lonely as hell,” he said. “There’s not a decent woman to talk to here.”
Uh huh. No decent women there? You better hope no one at the home reads this article. What an insult to all the women!