[W]e could prohibit radios in cars because the music and adjustment can lead to collisions. Set the highway speed limit to 25mph. Ban cars entirely since they’re more dangerous than walking and public transport. Require an N95 indoors at all times.
People often give examples like these to motivate the need to think about trade-offs between quantity and quality of life, but it’s not obvious to me that these would actually decrease deaths on net.
I hear from drivers that music helps keep their mind active and focussed while driving / makes them less likely to zone out. A lower highway speed limit would slow down the economy and limit the distribution of goods, which is important for saving lives (one obvious example is medical goods, but you can think of others). Banning cars even more so. N95s do make it a bit harder to communicate with people and are a bit uncomfortable, it’s not at all obvious to me that that leads to 0 deaths (both due to direct reduction of communication that ends up being important for saving lives, and also reduction in social ties leading to increased stress leading to more heart attacks, and also gyms basically don’t exist any more so people don’t exercise as much).
Anyway I’m sure there are interventions that really would decrease deaths (banning sugary drinks is a plausible example) that present a trade-off in quality of life. But it’s interesting to me that examples people tend to give don’t obviously meet the mark.
People often give examples like these to motivate the need to think about trade-offs between quantity and quality of life, but it’s not obvious to me that these would actually decrease deaths on net.
I hear from drivers that music helps keep their mind active and focussed while driving / makes them less likely to zone out. A lower highway speed limit would slow down the economy and limit the distribution of goods, which is important for saving lives (one obvious example is medical goods, but you can think of others). Banning cars even more so. N95s do make it a bit harder to communicate with people and are a bit uncomfortable, it’s not at all obvious to me that that leads to 0 deaths (both due to direct reduction of communication that ends up being important for saving lives, and also reduction in social ties leading to increased stress leading to more heart attacks, and also gyms basically don’t exist any more so people don’t exercise as much).
Anyway I’m sure there are interventions that really would decrease deaths (banning sugary drinks is a plausible example) that present a trade-off in quality of life. But it’s interesting to me that examples people tend to give don’t obviously meet the mark.