Shouldn’t we think about the counterfactual where the vaccine is not completely safe and healthy? What happens next time, when the thing is even more tribal-affiliated, such that the tribe in power won’t be upfront about the downsides of it? I don’t want a world where politics & power incentivize what medical procedures I should/shouldn’t get. I’d love to keep those spheres as separate as possible.
And that’s where I’m confused—because it’s conveniently very possible to keep them separate in this case: the vaccine works on individuals. You don’t need sweeping mandates for the whole community in order to get it to work. Everyone can just make a medical decision in their own best interests.
If you think not getting the vaccine is healthier, you should be able to live that experiment, as long as its effect on others is negligible. And likewise, in the possible future where I actually think it’s healthier to not do X medical procedure, I hope I can run that experiment without incurring the wrath of politics and power.
Bp(V)= expected net personal benefit of getting vaccinated Bc(V)= expected net collective benefit of getting vaccinated.
It’s possible to imagine a scenario where the former is negative and the latter is positive. That would leave us with a genuine “free rider” problem, and a rather high-stakes one at that. The most prosaic solution to such problems is to pay people to do the thing that they wouldn’t otherwise do rationally.
I don’t think there’s anything terribly objectionable about the government incentivizing people to take on personal risks they wouldn’t otherwise take. After all, there are lots of government jobs which are inherently dangerous—and the government “incentivizes” them by paying people decent sums of money.
Coercion concern:
Shouldn’t we think about the counterfactual where the vaccine is not completely safe and healthy? What happens next time, when the thing is even more tribal-affiliated, such that the tribe in power won’t be upfront about the downsides of it? I don’t want a world where politics & power incentivize what medical procedures I should/shouldn’t get. I’d love to keep those spheres as separate as possible.
And that’s where I’m confused—because it’s conveniently very possible to keep them separate in this case: the vaccine works on individuals. You don’t need sweeping mandates for the whole community in order to get it to work. Everyone can just make a medical decision in their own best interests.
If you think not getting the vaccine is healthier, you should be able to live that experiment, as long as its effect on others is negligible. And likewise, in the possible future where I actually think it’s healthier to not do X medical procedure, I hope I can run that experiment without incurring the wrath of politics and power.
I’ve been thinking about this too. Say we let
Bp(V)= expected net personal benefit of getting vaccinated
Bc(V)= expected net collective benefit of getting vaccinated.
It’s possible to imagine a scenario where the former is negative and the latter is positive. That would leave us with a genuine “free rider” problem, and a rather high-stakes one at that. The most prosaic solution to such problems is to pay people to do the thing that they wouldn’t otherwise do rationally.
I don’t think there’s anything terribly objectionable about the government incentivizing people to take on personal risks they wouldn’t otherwise take. After all, there are lots of government jobs which are inherently dangerous—and the government “incentivizes” them by paying people decent sums of money.