Before We have Government do More to Help the Poor We Need to examine what Government is Doing to the Poor.

I just read the following on Marginal Revolution and it reinforced my thinking that

before we get government to do more to help the poor we need to examine what Government is doing to the poor and stop some of it.

This is only one data point, but it supports hypotheses that higher levels of New World violence stem from relatively recent population shifts, drug trafficking, and arms trafficking. When Old World cities have that blend, they too become quite violent.

 It played into my priors:

Abstract

The effect of requiring consumers to obtain prescriptions for pharmaceuticals on mortality is examined for a sample of middle‐income countries. In countries enforcing the requirement, infectious disease mortality is no lower and poisoning mortality is higher than in those not enforcing the requirement. A broader measure of government intervention—public expenditures on health relative to GDP—is shown to have moderately adverse effects on overall life expectancy.

We should at least take a sober and serious look at legalizing all drugs but antibiotics without a prescription