energy on the basis that this is also critical for their welfare? Side question: is it a
good practice to provide such free infrastructure services?
It is possible to improve energy efficiency in a country through different
measures:
(a) auditing the large consumers,
(b) comparing with other users to find more efficient practices,
(c) using energy ratings and implementing their use for consumers’ equipment,
(d) encouraging high energy consumers to adopt higher efficiency practices,
(e) providing incentives for energy efficiency in buildings.
Procurement policies should work on two fronts:
• Encourage consumers to buy energy efficient products – with relevant labelling,
• Use life cycle costs, rather than initial costs only, to purchase equipment.
1.2.6 Health
Governments spend money on the health system because this is important in three
ways:
(1) the number of working man-hours is increased,
(2) the quality of work gets improved with healthier employees,
(3) when uninhabitable areas are cleared, natural resources which would not otherwise be used, may be harnessed.
Preventive public health policies or programmes can help more than curative
medicine. The death rate has decreased drastically over the last centuries because the
main killers have been wiped out at relatively small cost, using the services of only a
handful of doctors, engineers either by improvements in the water supply – which
have curbed cholera, typhoid and dysentery – or by environmental sanitation –
which has materially reduced the incidence of malaria, yellow fever and
tuberculosis – or by vaccination – which has nearly eliminated smallpox, diphtheria
and poliomyelitis.
A country needs a minimum number of doctors to provide a good public health
service. Beyond this number, extra doctors add to the comfort and convenience of
patients, but do not add a great deal to health.
Most Governments realise the productivity of expenditure on public health. The
debate, however, relates to the expenditure on curative medicine, especially on
hospitals and on clinics. This part of the medical service is also the most visible to
the public, who might want more of it. Unfortunately, it also costs most, and has a
low productivity.
Although we might judge infrastructure (or its services) only in terms of productivity, people value health for its own sake, as they value consumer goods. Good
health is valueless: people will often mortgage all they possess (e.g. go for expensive
1.2 Examples of Infrastructure
13
good practice to provide such free infrastructure services?
It is possible to improve energy efficiency in a country through different
measures:
(a) auditing the large consumers,
(b) comparing with other users to find more efficient practices,
(c) using energy ratings and implementing their use for consumers’ equipment,
(d) encouraging high energy consumers to adopt higher efficiency practices,
(e) providing incentives for energy efficiency in buildings.
Procurement policies should work on two fronts:
• Encourage consumers to buy energy efficient products – with relevant labelling,
• Use life cycle costs, rather than initial costs only, to purchase equipment.
1.2.6 Health
Governments spend money on the health system because this is important in three
ways:
(1) the number of working man-hours is increased,
(2) the quality of work gets improved with healthier employees,
(3) when uninhabitable areas are cleared, natural resources which would not otherwise be used, may be harnessed.
Preventive public health policies or programmes can help more than curative
medicine. The death rate has decreased drastically over the last centuries because the
main killers have been wiped out at relatively small cost, using the services of only a
handful of doctors, engineers either by improvements in the water supply – which
have curbed cholera, typhoid and dysentery – or by environmental sanitation –
which has materially reduced the incidence of malaria, yellow fever and
tuberculosis – or by vaccination – which has nearly eliminated smallpox, diphtheria
and poliomyelitis.
A country needs a minimum number of doctors to provide a good public health
service. Beyond this number, extra doctors add to the comfort and convenience of
patients, but do not add a great deal to health.
Most Governments realise the productivity of expenditure on public health. The
debate, however, relates to the expenditure on curative medicine, especially on
hospitals and on clinics. This part of the medical service is also the most visible to
the public, who might want more of it. Unfortunately, it also costs most, and has a
low productivity.
Although we might judge infrastructure (or its services) only in terms of productivity, people value health for its own sake, as they value consumer goods. Good
health is valueless: people will often mortgage all they possess (e.g. go for expensive
1.2 Examples of Infrastructure
13