Economics of human lives

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As I work in MOH, there is a need for me to understand the economics of healthcare. And as work required, I was made to attend an in-house MOH training course which Economics of healthcare is one of the modules. Moreover, recently,, due to work, I have kena some repeated telecast of the same lecture by the same lecturer. But that's not the point I want to draw out here.

In one of the readings that we have to read for the module, there is this very interesting chapter from the book 'More sex is safer sex' by Steven E. Landsburg. In the chapter, 'Matters of Life and Death', Landsburg made the argument that we place an absolute value on human lives. Here's the crux of his argument:

If putting a dollar value on human lives strikes you as cold-hearted, grow up. You implicitly put a dollar value on human lives every time you but a candy bar with funds that could instead have been donated to the local fire department. No matter who you are, there is a limit to what you're willing to spend to save lives; the only question is whether you're willing to think honestly about what the limit is....
As I read this, it is almost an echo of us, as belivers, who have to make the choice on how to spend our time.

Let me explain why this is a related issue. We are commanded by the bible to reach out to people who have not heard the gospel. You can google the statistics on the death rate in the world. There is a likelihood, every second in the world, there is someone dying who never has the chance to hear the gospel. How we spend our time is a direct function of how we perceive the eternal well-beings of the people around us. For example, the one hour we spend to play computer games at home or the one hour we used to have some private time with our girlfriends/boyfriends is one hour which we could have used to spend on sharing the gospel and advancing God's kingdom. Implicitly, we place a cost on our time, and made an implicit choice, even when we do not realise it.

Before one comes to me and start screaming at me at my reasoning, let me just first clarify that I am not saying we should not take rest, or deliberately spend time with our loved one to improve our relationship. However, the bible is quite clear on how we spend our time. In Ephesians, it admonishes us to be wise in how we live our lives, as the days are evil (5:15-17). In essence, how we spend our time should be part of a bigger picture within the Kingdom of God. This sounds iffy, but essentially, if I have spent one hour playing computer games, and it achieved nothing except to make me feel more empty, tired and not refreshed, then I cannot call it a rest.

The key thing I want to say is this, we place an economic value on our time, and as a result, on the Kingdom of God, whether we realise it or not. Yet, are we purposefully using and maximising our time? I think it is time for us to start to think about this seriously.

Comments

  1. yeu@nn1:22 AM

    I like this! :) Hmm... of course, there's also the need to wait for God's timing... the kairos moments... but when that timing comes, then we must make the most of every opportunity.

    ReplyDelete

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