Cheney on the cost of AIDS
During the Vice Presidential debate tonight, Gwen Ifill asked: "Black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government‘s role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?"
CHENEY: Well, this is a great tragedy, Gwen, when you think about the enormous cost here in the United States and around the world of the AIDS epidemic—pandemic, really. Millions of lives lost, millions more infected and facing a very bleak future. In some parts of the world, we‘ve got the entire, sort of, productive generation has been eliminated as a result of AIDS, all except for old folks and kids—nobody to do the basic work that runs an economy.
This is a most incredible response to a question about AIDS. Here is a question about a health epidemic, and essentially about justice and equality in health care, and he answers in the language of money. In his mind, it's a great tragedy because of the "enormous cost". Now, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he means human cost - pain and suffering. But he continues, pointing out that the "productive generation" has been eliminated in some countries, with "nobody left to do the basic work that runs an economy." While I agree that this is a major problem, I am horrified and fascinated by the way that all problems are viewed through the green lens of economic costs.