So, one day my friends and I are sitting on the quad when my friend Matt comes back from his job at the medical center and starts a conversation. He decides that his goal as a doctor is to cure cancer. He then amazed all the pre-med students around me with tales of genetic growth and living longer. And while everyone sat in awe and wonder of Matt's hope to cure cancer and the benefits that would follow, I questioned him.
The economic student in me, or perhaps the lack of a pre-med student in me, caused me to question Matt's idea and discover the consequences it would have.
First off, there would be a great increase in life expectancy. The modern theory of the commercial revolution states that there needs to be continuous improvements to allow productivity to outpace population growth. The markets would need to increase production, and fast! This would probably cause a second consequence:
The retirement age would need to be increased. Even today with cancer this is a topic of discussion. We would need to be saving money longer and pensions and social security policies might change to reflect a longer life expectancy. We would have to shift our "pie charts" of time and money spent on things to reflect the idea that we need more things to use, eat, live in for our entire lives.
Third, if suddenly our world population started increasing rapidly, we might succumb to Malthusian ideas and have a population check. Even if this did not happen, we would need a rapid increase in economic growth to deal with the population.
Fourth, the market would change. With no consequences to smoking or exposure to sun, the smoking industry would increase and the suntan lotion industry would probably crash. Doctors would be needed more to cure the cancers, although it would be easy, while cancer doctors might be out of a job.
And finally there is the environmental problems. In a world whose cancers are frequently caused by exposure to sun, smoking, and radiation, we would see no down side to these deadly things if they didn't hurt us. We only care about the environment for our health and well being and our resources. With cancer out of the way, people would smoke and use radiation causing environmental problems. Also I don't really want to go outside and see pools of radiation with chain smokers dancing through the streets.
While I do think cancer is bad and do believe that we should cure it, I tossed up my economical debate to my pre-med friends just to create a discussion. They promptly dismissed it as a joke.
The economic student in me, or perhaps the lack of a pre-med student in me, caused me to question Matt's idea and discover the consequences it would have.
First off, there would be a great increase in life expectancy. The modern theory of the commercial revolution states that there needs to be continuous improvements to allow productivity to outpace population growth. The markets would need to increase production, and fast! This would probably cause a second consequence:
The retirement age would need to be increased. Even today with cancer this is a topic of discussion. We would need to be saving money longer and pensions and social security policies might change to reflect a longer life expectancy. We would have to shift our "pie charts" of time and money spent on things to reflect the idea that we need more things to use, eat, live in for our entire lives.
Third, if suddenly our world population started increasing rapidly, we might succumb to Malthusian ideas and have a population check. Even if this did not happen, we would need a rapid increase in economic growth to deal with the population.
Fourth, the market would change. With no consequences to smoking or exposure to sun, the smoking industry would increase and the suntan lotion industry would probably crash. Doctors would be needed more to cure the cancers, although it would be easy, while cancer doctors might be out of a job.
And finally there is the environmental problems. In a world whose cancers are frequently caused by exposure to sun, smoking, and radiation, we would see no down side to these deadly things if they didn't hurt us. We only care about the environment for our health and well being and our resources. With cancer out of the way, people would smoke and use radiation causing environmental problems. Also I don't really want to go outside and see pools of radiation with chain smokers dancing through the streets.
While I do think cancer is bad and do believe that we should cure it, I tossed up my economical debate to my pre-med friends just to create a discussion. They promptly dismissed it as a joke.
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