Robin Hanson contrasts the public’s demand for health care regardless of the evidence of it’s efficacy, with the public’s demand for grocery stores and “car entitlements”:
If we were considering a vast new grocery store or car entitlement, the public would hardly “forget” to wonder if that would really give us more nutrition or a faster commute. But the US public has little religious-style fervor on grocery stores or cars.
If only it were so, Robin! The public’s doesn’t worry about whether a new grocery store will provide them more nutrition, but whether it will provide them with organic foods. In the same way that the public assumes more health care means more health, they assume organic foods provide more nutrition despite the fact that all evidence suggests that they don’t. The fervor for unproven food policies as at least as religious as it is for health care.
Also, I’m not sure what “car entitlements” are, but I’m pretty sure that the public would just want to know how many “green jobs” they would create.
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Saturday ~ February 13th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Leigh Caldwell
I think rather than:
grocery store and “car entitlements”
he meant
“grocery store and car” entitlements.
That is, if the government were talking about buying people their groceries and cars…then perhaps the discussion might shift from organic foods to nutrition or commute time. Then again, maybe not.
Saturday ~ February 13th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Adam Ozimek
I don’t think people are any more results oriented when the government buys them food or cars then they are when they buy them health care. They are very rationally irrational.
Sunday ~ February 14th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Robin Hanson
I really don’t think the public is equally irrational on all topics. Med is a clear outlier.
Sunday ~ February 14th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Adam Ozimek
I’m not so sure that’s true. Here is a Harris poll where 76% of respondents said that organic foods are healthier. Granted, I’m sure a higher percentage believe that more health insurance will save lots of lives, but our certainty about the health impact of organic foods is also much higher. Megan and Tyler both seem to grant that we don’t know with any significant degree of confidence the health impacts of more insurance, and given your adamant call for another Rand-style health insurance expirement, I think you would agree more evidence is needed. In contrast, the existing evidence on organic foods seems sufficient to declare with fairly high degree of confidence that they aren’t more healthy.
So I’m not sure that when you consider both the public’s beliefs and the certainty of the evidence, that they are any more irrational about medicine than they are about organic foods.