Often you can get dramatic results for small amounts of money,or a small investment can pay off dramatically.
It consistently bothers me that people don't talk about low hanging fruit; easy simple ways to make the world better, and the educational ones that often pay for themselves in increased tax revenues and/or reductions in crime. Simple medical interventions often pay for themselves in reduced care costs.
The article suggests that because there is no constituency to support these changes, they don't get pushed. If that's true that's a shame.
A simpl stove that can be made of local materials in africa dramatically increases fuel efficiency, and reduces uncontrolled fires and smoke blindness http://www.aidafrica.net/stoves/
It would be interesting if policy debates focused more on cost benefit ratios. Of course a big problem is that dollar values placed on benefits can be pretty debatable, but it should often be possible to at least establish the likely range.
I guess another big problem is that getting people in the feels is a much more effective persuasion technique than pointing out that something is a sound investment.
It consistently bothers me that people don't talk about low hanging fruit; easy simple ways to make the world better, and the educational ones that often pay for themselves in increased tax revenues and/or reductions in crime. Simple medical interventions often pay for themselves in reduced care costs.
The article suggests that because there is no constituency to support these changes, they don't get pushed. If that's true that's a shame.
Other examples:
HeadStart pays for itself 9 times over. http://www.nhsa.org/files/static_page_files/399E0881-1D09-35...
Persistently lower arrests and crime rates if you give students a 6 week minimum wage job during the summer. http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/12/04/do_j...
A simple checklist significantly reduced death and serious complications in surgery. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871759,0...
A simpl stove that can be made of local materials in africa dramatically increases fuel efficiency, and reduces uncontrolled fires and smoke blindness http://www.aidafrica.net/stoves/
A one liter bottle and water can provide light for the poor without electricity. http://aliteroflight.org/index.php