Comments on Brinkley, Costa, and Seltzer: The Old, the Poor, and the Sick in American Economic History

Given the topics addressed by the three North American dissertations–old-age and disability pensions by Dora Costa, minimum wages by Andrew Seltzer, and hookworm disease by Garland Brinkley–I have subtitled my comments: “The Old, the Poor, and the Sick in American Economic History.” We observe that these dissertations address the effects of policies aimed at such seemingly inescapable human afflictions as aging, disability, poverty, and disease. Despite this observation, these are not tales of gloom. After all, as the authors themselves inform us, the old and disabled get pensions, the poor get minimum wages, and the sick get healed. So, each dissertation contains something to reassure the Dr. Pangloss–or the Dr. Stigler–in all of us. Here, however, the similarities between them end, with one notable exception–and that is the uniformly high quality of the scholarship they display.