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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Escape tower for shuttle orbiter?
Message-ID: <2024@peora.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Mar-86 13:46:11 EST
Article-I.D.: peora.2024
Posted: Thu Mar 13 13:46:11 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 02:09:01 EST
References: <418@watcgl.UUCP> <627@bentley.UUCP>
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl
Lines: 17

> Do you have airbags in your car?  If not, would you pay a million dollars
> to have them installed?  They do save lives.

I think this analogy is fallacious.  It would make more sense to take the
ratio    (cost of shuttle safety mechanism) / (cost of shuttle) = r
and then multiply r * (cost of car)... you could then ask if the person is
willing to pay that much.  The reason is that a person's individual budget
is much smaller than NASA's, and arguing that a person wouldn't be willing
(or more accurately, able) to pay "millions" for car airbags has little to
do with NASA paying "millions" for additional shuttle safety -- they've
already started doing that anyway, with the redesign of the o-rings.

[Besides which airbags tend to be an emotional issue for some people, and
thus it's not clear whether a person would be willing to pay for something
the person is afraid may frighten the person by going off.]
-- 
E. Roskos