As an aside, I’d push back gently against using a dollar figure for the statistical value of a human life to set the value on any single life-saving (or life-sustaining) product. I may be misunderstanding the concept, but it seems like assigning the entire value of a saved life to one product used in one instance would be a mistake.
My thought process: If every additional tool used to save any life (or the same life multiple times) is valued at the full $9 million per each life saved, then the actual “value” of a life would be many, many, many multiples of $9 million.
All that said, it is interesting to read this post in light of efforts to ramp up production of ventilators and masks.
That’s a good point, but I don’t think it changes the analysis much. All of the “additional” tools are already available (in some sense and to some degree) so those costs are effectively ‘sunk’. The tools or supplies that are necessary to save a life, but are unavailable, effectively ‘swallow’ the entire value of the lives they could save. This is definitely ‘marginal’ thinking (‘thinking on the margin’).
But your point is still true to an extent even in the case of ventilators – it’s not sufficient for someone to have produce a ventilator – somewhere. It also has to be delivered, installed, and then run – by certain specific people with the relevant training and credentials – and, in the medium and long terms, inspected and maintained. Even on the margin, all of those contribute to the value of any lives saved.
As an aside, I’d push back gently against using a dollar figure for the statistical value of a human life to set the value on any single life-saving (or life-sustaining) product. I may be misunderstanding the concept, but it seems like assigning the entire value of a saved life to one product used in one instance would be a mistake.
My thought process: If every additional tool used to save any life (or the same life multiple times) is valued at the full $9 million per each life saved, then the actual “value” of a life would be many, many, many multiples of $9 million.
All that said, it is interesting to read this post in light of efforts to ramp up production of ventilators and masks.
That’s a good point, but I don’t think it changes the analysis much. All of the “additional” tools are already available (in some sense and to some degree) so those costs are effectively ‘sunk’. The tools or supplies that are necessary to save a life, but are unavailable, effectively ‘swallow’ the entire value of the lives they could save. This is definitely ‘marginal’ thinking (‘thinking on the margin’).
But your point is still true to an extent even in the case of ventilators – it’s not sufficient for someone to have produce a ventilator – somewhere. It also has to be delivered, installed, and then run – by certain specific people with the relevant training and credentials – and, in the medium and long terms, inspected and maintained. Even on the margin, all of those contribute to the value of any lives saved.