Chapter 10.2, Problem 20MS

Reduced safety. Given the scenario of our air safety discussion, suppose that the FAA reduced many of its safety requirements, and air travel safety dropped by 5% (that is, 5% more people would be killed in air travel). However, the airlines passed this savings on to the consumers, and lower ticket prices resulted in a 15% increase in air travel and a likely reduction in travel by car. Assuming all the other data still hold from our discussion, what is the net result on lives lost if we make the planes less safe?