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Re: Yuri receives hypocrite of the week award (was Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy)



Joan Shields wrote:
> 
> Joan Shields wrote:
> >> Up to half a billion (500,000,000) people in Africa suffer at least one
> >> serious malarial episode each year.  In 1993 it was estimated by the World
> >> Bank that within two years, due to loss of productive adult workers,
> >> malaria cost African economies 1.8 billion dollars.
> 
> Enrique Diaz-Alvarez  <enrique@ee.cornell.edu> wrote:
> >So, on average, being sick with malaria only costs $1.8 a year in loss
> >of productivity? That's one hell of a cheap illness! One morning with
> >the runs, and I'm already out far more than that!
> 
> >You are right. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A lot of it is
> >even more dangerous, when it is not combined with a minimum of common
> >sense and the ability to check one's facts with simple back-of-the
> >envelope estimates.
> 
> Hmmm... perhaps you are making the assumption that the only people who are
> suffering from malaria are adult workers?  500,000,000 also includes
> children and the elderly.  I guess I should have made that clearer,
> apparently I wrongly assumed that it would be obvious.  You might also
> want to keep in mind that $1.8 billion is the cost of lost productivity of
> workers and given the average pay for most of these workers, relatively
> speaking it's a great deal of money.  

So, you stand by your assertion that the average malaria case costs less
than one half of a day's wages (at regional levels) in lost
productivity. Remarkable.

> 
> And yes, you are correct, knowledge should be combined with a minimum of
> common sense.
> 

Yep, I insist.

> joan

-- 
Enrique Diaz-Alvarez            Office # (607) 255 5034	
Electrical Engineering          Home #   (607) 758 8962
112 Phillips Hall               Fax #    (607) 255 4565
Cornell University              mailto:enrique@ee.cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY 14853                http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique



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