[extropy-chat] Fear of Death Much Worse Than You Think

[Adrian Tymes]

Some of the data seems to be a bit selective.  For instance, when you
compare death rates for cities with the best water and sewer systems,
do you also control for crime rates and other potentially incidentally
related (save that there are only so many large cities) effects?

Still, it would be interesting to see the medical establishment's
specific criticisms of this.  (Not objection on face value, but the
specific errors they find - if any - in the data.)  Even after that,
you'll probably still have something of an argument for reform of
medical spending.  (For instance, I don't think many people have looked
at the medical effects of large numbers of restricted activity days in
preparation for receiving health care, which might well outweigh the
marginal - possibly nearly zero, at the level you examine - extra
benefits received from having a doctor check for problems more
frequently.)

--- Robin Hanson <rhanson at gmu.edu> wrote:

> Fear of Death and Muddled Thinking -- It Is So Much Worse Than You
> Think. Death And Anti-Death, Volume 3: Fifty Years After Einstein,
> One
> Hundred Fifty Years After Kierkegaard, ed. Charles Tandy, Ria
> University Press, to appear, 2006.  http://hanson.gmu.edu/feardie.pdf
> 
>    Humans clearly have trouble thinking about death.  This trouble is
>    often invoked to explain behavior like delays in writing wills or
>    buying life insurance, or interest in odd medical and religious
>    beliefs.  But the problem is far worse than most people imagine. 
> Fear
>    of death makes us spend fifteen percent of our wealth on medicine,
>    from which we get little or no health benefit, while we neglect
> things
>    like exercise, which offer large health benefits.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
> Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
> MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
> 703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323 
> 
> 
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