5 ms·
What cost ratio would you find unacceptably high to stop a pandemic?
by kaesar14 7y ago
What cost ratio would you find unacceptably high to stop a pandemic?
- ralph84 7y agoAround $10 million per life seems to be the number used in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life#United_States
- tlb 7y agoThat's a measure of what we should spend to save lives, such as by installing safety equipment. Those expenditures increase the size of the economy. The amount by which we should shrink the economy to save lives might be quite a different number. I haven't seen a good analysis of that case. In general, shrinking the economy costs lives elsewhere such as by malnutrition or lack of money to spend on safety equipment. So the number ought to be lower.
- wwweston 7y agoDeaths will also shrink productive capacity and demand (severe illness would presumably only shrink productive capacity).
- dllthomas 7y ago> Those expenditures increase the size of the economy. If that isn't broken windows, I'm not sure why.
- tlb 7y agoDo you mean the theory that visible signs of petty crime cause more lawlessness generally? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory If so, I don't see the connection.
- dllthomas 7y agoI mean the idea that breaking a window is good for the economy because the glazier gets paid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window No relation to the other. Sorry - my mistake in assuming sufficient familiarity with both to disambiguate from context.
- wideasleep1 7y agoZorg from 5th Element might be a more familiar 'parable', with a cherry on top: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnzzWGcdMqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnzzWGcdMqY
- tlb 7y agoIt's not anything like the parable of the broken windows, because installing safety equipment makes people's lives better, while breaking windows does not.
- dllthomas 7y agoIf it improves people's lives beyond just the lives saved, then I agree. I don't see that implied in what was written.
- in_cahoots 7y agoWhat if 90% [n.b.: this is not a real statistic but I do believe 97% of deaths are in people older than 60] of the deaths were of people older than 70 with pre-existing conditions?
- hirundo 7y agoCould the economic gains from fewer retirees consuming lots of medical care and social security funds outweigh the losses in senior experience and volunteerism? Maybe. But not to them.
- wool_gather 7y agoIndeed. The psychology of the dying people's relatives also factors into the economy. I'm sure some actuary somewhere has put a number on it.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoI'm sure anyone who's done a thorough job putting a number to it (probably insurance companies) is probably also smart enough to know that there is little potential upside and much potential downside to sharing that analysis with current society.
- wool_gather 7y agoAlso very true. :)