Thanks for this. (I hope my summary of value of life was mostly right!)
Yes I haven’t really given any thought to what the best way of handling the situation would be, or would have been. Clearly complex given that there are sociological/political constraints too (e.g. how would the public react if x% of them die in a new dramatic way—as contrast with, die routinely from seasonal flu or traffic accidents).
It seems to me a global recession could reduce income/employment & hence quality of life without having much effect on life expectancy. For I’m not sure the last recession had much or any identifiable effect on it; growth in life expectancy has slowed since 2008⁄9, and I asked Paul F about this in a comment below one of his recent articles (which I have indeed been following), but he attributes it to other things. So I wonder if only looking at saving lives is going to miss most of the damage.
I think Paul F is effectively combining quality with quantity of life in his dollar numbers, and converting to whole lives lost as a convenient way to express it, but not completely sure. After all, dollars can be spent on quality or quantity of life.
I look forward to reading your analysis in due course!
Hi Michael
Thanks for this. (I hope my summary of value of life was mostly right!)
Yes I haven’t really given any thought to what the best way of handling the situation would be, or would have been. Clearly complex given that there are sociological/political constraints too (e.g. how would the public react if x% of them die in a new dramatic way—as contrast with, die routinely from seasonal flu or traffic accidents).
It seems to me a global recession could reduce income/employment & hence quality of life without having much effect on life expectancy. For I’m not sure the last recession had much or any identifiable effect on it; growth in life expectancy has slowed since 2008⁄9, and I asked Paul F about this in a comment below one of his recent articles (which I have indeed been following), but he attributes it to other things. So I wonder if only looking at saving lives is going to miss most of the damage.
I think Paul F is effectively combining quality with quantity of life in his dollar numbers, and converting to whole lives lost as a convenient way to express it, but not completely sure. After all, dollars can be spent on quality or quantity of life.
I look forward to reading your analysis in due course!
Yes, good point. Now inclined to think your and Paul F’s analyses need to be combined in some way, not immediately clear to me how.
He is indeed converting money into quality and quality of health, not just quantity, my mistake.