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I don't understand how you're measuring. Hep C medicine has zero utility value for me right now. And I'm enjoying watching Brooklyn 99 from the beginning righ

I don't understand how you're measuring. Hep C medicine has zero utility value for me right now. And I'm enjoying watching Brooklyn 99 from the beginning right now, because I'd never seen it. My wife is watching series after series on Netflix that are all old. My daughter is enjoying the entire archive of Disney movies. Snow White is what, 82 years old? When Incredibles 2 is coming out, you can bet the utility of Incredibles 1 went way up. That said, I think you're being entirely too specific and literal. It's a bad, clickbait analogy. And? Buy medicine in bulk. Not a huge leap to make.

kakaorka 8y ago
Maybe because that’s just you, a unique individual. For a different unique case, such as someone who has Hep C, the utility value for the medicine could literally be everything for the person. So, if we average the utility value for a whole population, the utility value would actually be pretty high, especially if a lot of people have Hep C.
- VikingCoder 8y ago
  I'm sorry, can you explain how we "average" the utility? For me, it has zero value. For another person, it saves their life, and they would pay literally anything they could. How do we average that? My hot take: We can't. Buy medicine in bulk, give it to people for free, progressive taxes to pay for it.
  - rexpop 8y ago
    I like your take, but how are we going to enforce progressive taxation? The wealthiest firms escape taxation, at the moment.
    - VikingCoder 8y ago
      I can't pretend the answer is easy, but... Starting with personal income tax, capital gains, and estate taxes would go a long way. I think we really need to come up with an International version of the Uniform Commercial Code. And get money out of politics.
    - djakjxnanjak 8y ago
      We ought to tax wealth instead of income, and tax individuals instead of corporations. The nature of corporate wealth is that the generation of value is disconnected from the generation of cash. It’s impossible to fairly regulate the infinite shell games that result from this. The problem we are trying to fix is inequality of wealth, so we should tax wealth directly and not via proxies like corporate profits.
WhompingWindows 8y ago
Yeah, you don't tear down his overall point with your anecdotal, n=1 case. It's the population average not N=1 average, that we care about in public health.
deegles 8y ago
If you think you or one of your loved ones might someday need a blood transfusion I would say that's positive value right there. Even if 100% of infected blood is screened out, Hep C decreases the available supply and that will have consequences downstream.

kakaorka 8y ago

Maybe because that’s just you, a unique individual. For a different unique case, such as someone who has Hep C, the utility value for the medicine could literally be everything for the person. So, if we average the utility value for a whole population, the utility value would actually be pretty high, especially if a lot of people have Hep C.

VikingCoder 8y ago
I'm sorry, can you explain how we "average" the utility? For me, it has zero value. For another person, it saves their life, and they would pay literally anything they could. How do we average that? My hot take: We can't. Buy medicine in bulk, give it to people for free, progressive taxes to pay for it.
- rexpop 8y ago
  I like your take, but how are we going to enforce progressive taxation? The wealthiest firms escape taxation, at the moment.
  - VikingCoder 8y ago
    I can't pretend the answer is easy, but... Starting with personal income tax, capital gains, and estate taxes would go a long way. I think we really need to come up with an International version of the Uniform Commercial Code. And get money out of politics.
  - djakjxnanjak 8y ago
    We ought to tax wealth instead of income, and tax individuals instead of corporations. The nature of corporate wealth is that the generation of value is disconnected from the generation of cash. It’s impossible to fairly regulate the infinite shell games that result from this. The problem we are trying to fix is inequality of wealth, so we should tax wealth directly and not via proxies like corporate profits.

WhompingWindows 8y ago

Yeah, you don't tear down his overall point with your anecdotal, n=1 case. It's the population average not N=1 average, that we care about in public health.

deegles 8y ago

If you think you or one of your loved ones might someday need a blood transfusion I would say that's positive value right there. Even if 100% of infected blood is screened out, Hep C decreases the available supply and that will have consequences downstream.