I’ve just read an Open Letter to Work and Pensions’ Secretary, John Hutton in the Guardian. The writer describes her experiences of “being a burden”. I think her apprehensions tie in with the theme of this posting: any reforms should not affect somebody like her (like many of the people I worked with this morning)and yet the doom-laden discussions in the media provide little information about the scope of who will be affected. Leading to FEAR and in some cases, anxiety, depression or despair.
What is a price? To everyone but economists, it is nothing more that the amount we pay for a given item or service. One example is the amount of money we hand over for our food shopping at the supermarket. But, to an economist, the price is a more sophisticated package. The time that we spend waiting to enter the car-park, at the fish counter, the delicatessen and at the check-out is all part of the price. The food miles accumulated by our purchases are part of the price. According to the economist Kevin Murphy, the nutritional downside of our food choices may be part of the cost: he calculates that a cheeseburger effectively costs $2.50 more than a salad in long-term implications.
FEAR can lead to negative emotions and its adverse impact on health. If a carer’s health fails, the medical and social costs can be substantial as formal care must be substituted for what has previously been supplied voluntarily. Carers contribute an indirect and significant subsidy to the state. If statutory bodies and other authorities had an obligation to calculate the price of labelling people as burdens, or of causing them unnecessary FEAR, what would the price be? Would the price still be worth paying?
tonyplant
January 24, 2006 - 13:51I’ve just read an Open Letter to Work and Pensions’ Secretary, John Hutton in the Guardian. The writer describes her experiences of “being a burden”. I think her apprehensions tie in with the theme of this posting: any reforms should not affect somebody like her (like many of the people I worked with this morning)and yet the doom-laden discussions in the media provide little information about the scope of who will be affected. Leading to FEAR and in some cases, anxiety, depression or despair.
What is a price? To everyone but economists, it is nothing more that the amount we pay for a given item or service. One example is the amount of money we hand over for our food shopping at the supermarket. But, to an economist, the price is a more sophisticated package. The time that we spend waiting to enter the car-park, at the fish counter, the delicatessen and at the check-out is all part of the price. The food miles accumulated by our purchases are part of the price. According to the economist Kevin Murphy, the nutritional downside of our food choices may be part of the cost: he calculates that a cheeseburger effectively costs $2.50 more than a salad in long-term implications.
FEAR can lead to negative emotions and its adverse impact on health. If a carer’s health fails, the medical and social costs can be substantial as formal care must be substituted for what has previously been supplied voluntarily. Carers contribute an indirect and significant subsidy to the state. If statutory bodies and other authorities had an obligation to calculate the price of labelling people as burdens, or of causing them unnecessary FEAR, what would the price be? Would the price still be worth paying?
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