Two Hundred and thirteen BILLION dollars.
That's the budget deficit this year - a stunning turnaround from the projected $5 billion surplus forecast before we locked down the countries towns, cities and state borders.
Value of Statistical Life
Based on international and Australian research a credible estimate of the value of statistical life is
$4.9m and the value of statistical life year is $213,000 in 2019 dollars.
A key concept is the value of a statistical life (VSL) which is an estimate of the value society places on reducing the risk of dying. By convention the life is assumed to be the life of a young adult with at least 40 years of life ahead.
Source
So, how many people would we have needed to get "value for money" out of the $200B deficit?
43,469. But hang on a minute...That's "young adults with 40 years ahead of them".
The median age of COVID deaths in Australia remains 86. According to the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, an 85 year old male in 2018 can expect to live to 91.4, a female to 92.5, so average it out to 92 years (
Source). So that's what, 6 years longer than the average COVID death. So how many people would need to be saved to get value for money with those figures?
166,666 senior citizens would need to be "saved" to justify the cost of our current budget deficit.
Anybody really think we "got out money's worth"?