The Oil Drum

208 comments on Rising Energy Costs and the Future of Hospital Work

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Reed on May 10, 2008 - 12:54pm

Oh my goodness! We homo saps, created by god in his very own image, are worth whatever it takes to keep us alive as long as possible. All other life on this planet was placed here just for our benefit. This is so obviously self evident.

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BrianT on May 10, 2008 - 1:29pm

Studies have shown that overall, hospital spending does not increase average life span. Diet, obesity, exercise, less driving fatalities, less alcohol abuse are all more important than hospital spending.

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Gail the Actuary on May 10, 2008 - 2:23pm

I agree with you. Our healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, but the outcomes are nowhere near the best. We spend an awfully lot of money on hospitalizing very elderly people who will die within a year or two, regardless of what is done.

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Keith Akers on May 11, 2008 - 10:44am

Right. There's another aspect to this also, and that is that as peak oil develops basic overall health (prior to treatment for any health problems) may improve. In World War I, neutral Denmark was subject to the Allied blockade of the continent. They converted to a largely lacto-vegetarian diet and the mortality dropped by about 30%. In World War II, death rates for circulatory diseases and diabetes dropped dramatically in occupied Norway. In both cases, the death rates went back up when the wars ended (sources in my book "A Vegetarian Sourcebook").

A lot depends on how we react to the food situation. A lot of current health care expenses relate to degenerative conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, etc., all of which are strongly linked to diet and all of which tend to occur in the "civilized" nations but do not occur nearly as much in the less developed world.

In a world beset by all the other problems of a post-peak world (high prices, unemployment, etc.) switching the country to a vegetarian or largely vegetarian diet would not be either technically complicated and would not necessarily be that hard of a "sell."

Keith Akers

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“If kindness and comfort are, as I suspect, the results of an energy surplus, then, as the supply contracts, we could be expected to start fighting once again like cats in a sack.”

—George Monbiot