Government Ethics for Citizens

Personal interest vs. public interest is central to government ethics. We tend to think, however, that it's central to them (officials) not to us (citizens), and that we have nothing to learn from this sort of ethics. Well, we're wrong. Take flu shots, for instance. People get flu shots because they feel they are personally likely to be seriously harmed by the flu (older people, very young children) or likely to contract it (people who work in hospitals and schools).

But what if people were given flu shots because they are more likely to spread the flu (children), that is, if people were more concerned about the public interest than their own interest? A population that, like ours, thinks of themselves contracts 100 times more flu infections than a population that thinks of others. Giving flu shots to 77% of children could all but eliminate seasonal flus.

This is based on an Economist article, which is not available on-line, which is in turn based on a study by Prof. Alison Galvani of Yale University and her colleagues.