Most people impose a multitude of risks on others throughout the day.
For example, for every hour you drive, there's a risk that you will fall asleep and kill some pedestrians on the sidewalk.
If you fly, there's a risk that the plane will crash, killing people on the ground. Planes also spew lot's of exhaust which kills people via lung damage or global warming.
Even if you lay in bed and surf the web, you put people at risk by consuming electricity. All current energy generation technology kills some people every year.
How do economists measure risk?
One measure is simply to count the number of fatalities, as a percentage of number of participants in that activity over some time period (a year, a lifetime).
Another measure would be to calculate how days of your life you're likely to lose by engaging in a given activity. For example, the CDC calculates that smoking one cigarette will reduce your lifespan by about 11 minutes (statistically speaking).
Dom Nozzi lists several tables of comparative risks here:
http://www.afn.org/~savanna/risk.htm
How many minutes will not wearing a mask take off of _other_ people's lives?
If one wanted to offset the risks imposed on others for not wearing a mask, how much would one have to donate to say, the Against Malaria Foundation in order to save more lives than not wearing a mask costs?
For example, for every hour you drive, there's a risk that you will fall asleep and kill some pedestrians on the sidewalk.
If you fly, there's a risk that the plane will crash, killing people on the ground. Planes also spew lot's of exhaust which kills people via lung damage or global warming.
Even if you lay in bed and surf the web, you put people at risk by consuming electricity. All current energy generation technology kills some people every year.
How do economists measure risk?
One measure is simply to count the number of fatalities, as a percentage of number of participants in that activity over some time period (a year, a lifetime).
Another measure would be to calculate how days of your life you're likely to lose by engaging in a given activity. For example, the CDC calculates that smoking one cigarette will reduce your lifespan by about 11 minutes (statistically speaking).
Dom Nozzi lists several tables of comparative risks here:
http://www.afn.org/~savanna/risk.htm
How many minutes will not wearing a mask take off of _other_ people's lives?
If one wanted to offset the risks imposed on others for not wearing a mask, how much would one have to donate to say, the Against Malaria Foundation in order to save more lives than not wearing a mask costs?