ABSTRACT
This chapter draws out and integrate some of the implications of the preceding parts of the book, paying special attention to the policy choices confronting governmental and industry decision-makers. Money values are simply used as a generic, common expressor of value to allow broad comparisons and choices between alternative programmes to be made. A related cautionary point is that naive or exploitative clients of economists may fail to understand or make clear that sophisticated economic calculations are not in any sense absolute or ‘value free’. Economists working in the health or any other sector should surely be responsible for preventing their findings from being used in a corrupt manner. Misinformation stemming from factors like inaccurate or otherwise misleading advertising and enforced substitution of demand as a result of governmental or supplier side decisions not to make alternative forms of consumption available are both additional examples of factors which might be alleged to lead to a ‘false demand consciousness’.
