“If you have your health, you have everything”? This completely trite saying is known to most English-speakers; but is it correct?

Daniel S. Hamermesh doubts it. In his latest opinion piece he writes: I could be completely healthy but lack enough income to allow me to enjoy even a minimally nutritious meal. I could be so busy, feeling so short of time, that although in excellent health I am totally frazzled.

One economic way of thinking about health is how it affects our ability to enjoy the things we are doing. Economists view us as taking the time we have and using it along with our income to create “commodities” that we enjoy consuming. Some take a lot of money and very little time—me watching a Rolling Stones concert in Madison Square Garden in my home town, for example. Others take little money but a lot of time—sleep, for example. For all of us both money and time are scarce; we want more of each. Nonetheless, study after study find that it worsens labor market conditions for workers who represent the manpower used to produce the outsourced goods and services. These workers enjoy lower wages and benefits, such as employer-financed health insurance, than their non-outsourced peers. Thus, this trend raises concerns about the role of outsourcing as an additional cause of rising inequality of earnings.

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