There is a very interesting nugget in a paper by Benjamin Hippen about the market for human organs in Iran, which I blogged about not long ago.
Hippen writes that in the earlier days of kidney transplantation, both the U.S. and Iranian governments “paid for dialysis while continuing to develop transplant options.” As more and more patients needed dialysis, the U.S. made it a fully funded Medicare benefit. But Iran didn’t feel it could do the same. Why not?
[T]he expense of dialysis, the economic collapse in Iran following the 1979 revolution, and the expense of the subsequent protracted conflict with Iraq encouraged the Iranian government to pay for transplantation as soon as immunosuppressant drugs made it a viable alternative to dialysis.
So that’s how, and why, Iran began down the road to allowing people to freely buy and sell organs on a regulated market. Without the financial crises, Iran probably wouldn’t have felt pressure to pursue a plan that turned out to be, on some significant dimensions at least, very successful. (Hippen argues that Iran is the one country in the world with no waiting list for kidney recipients.)
This reminds me of another instance where crisis produced innovation: During the 1970′s oil embargo, Brazil was so worried about its energy future that it devoted itself to building a sugar ethanol industry, and it worked. Again, without the crisis, it is likely that Brazil would have continued down the same oil-dependent path as other nations.
What kind of crisis/crises is the U.S. now experiencing, and what will some of the unexpected solutions be? (I am thinking of energy of course, but surely you must be thinking of others as well.)
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A crisis of inefficiency in American manufacturing spawned the Six Sigma revolution… wait… that only turned itself into a cottage industry while helping no one.
Scratch that.
I wonder if the general fragility and unprofitability of the airline industry, battered by unhappy consumers, high fuel costs, regulatory risk, and terrorism, will convince some party (public or private) to seriously reinvest in the infrastructure necessary for rail travel. This would especially make sense on the east coast where high speed trains could make New York to Washington a longish commute. (Heck, it’s already way faster on the train than flying.)
Just because you don’t know about the people who can’t afford a kidney in Iran, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a demand for kidneys there that isn’t being met.
who wants to wait for a crisis to produce an invention. Experience tells us, that certain kinds of crises are to be avoided and cannot be re-dressed. I included among these crises of the environment, of war, of terror/fear, of health, healthcare and healing, of the economy, and of education. I hate to mention it, but could 9/11 have been avoided? And aren’t some real innovations accidents? Serendipitous discoveries? I make one every day. Today, I found out that there are some free lunches. Just have to look and you might find them. Now, it seems that we can learn from the Iranians about how to improve our healthcare system.
The rise in gas prices could force companies to move more toward the virtual workspace. Telecommuting and e-collaboration.
When the average worker’s commute goes down from 90 minutes a day to 90 seconds a day, we just might see more productivity and better quality of work-life.
It’s harder to decide to put in extra time at work when you know you have a 45-minute commute ahead of you? And how nice is it to be able to begin your weekend at home at 5pm on Fridays, instead of fighting rush hour and missing dinner with the family?
If you live within 15km of where you work get on a bicycle. If you have bad knees, sore joints or are simply lazy, electric bicycles can do 25 mph and they cost a few cents per km to operate. No insurance, almost no maintenance…..
The sub prime crisis will certainly bring some positive changes to the oversight of the securities markets.
“who wants to wait for a crisis to produce an invention.”
The Federal Government… so it would seem.