29 Comments

Arguing isnt trying to find the truth.. lol arguing is having both sides of an argument and trying to convince the target audience that your view is the better of the two. it is close ti a debate but slightly different.

Expand full comment

dogs are the best because my name is dog

Expand full comment

Yes. Dogs have a big burden of parasites such as heart worms. They are also susceptible to distemper and others . Thank goodness people are not vulnerable to these things. That is why rabies shots are mandatory but not heart worm pills.

I also think Cyan has it right. There is this pressure to buy special "scientific " food from the vet. Many people have been lead to believe table food is horrible for a dog's health .Having owned many long lived dogs,this is incorrect.

My vet wanted to clean the dogs teeth under anesthesia. OK but not unless he was getting anesthesia for some other purpose. Cha ching,$65.

Was this signalling on my part? You should have heard the neighbors talk my dog's nice teeth.Right?Or maybe I was trying to impress the vet? Perhaps talking too much about signaling is a stronger example of real signaling than veterinary expenditures, even if it is a worthwhile subject.

Expand full comment

Has pet lifespan been extended by all this extra healthcare spending?

Expand full comment

Yvain's a man. (His personal website is linked from his Less Wrong user page.)

Expand full comment

My hypothesis is that people are spending more on pet care primarily because vets became more savvy about marketing their services -- sending out reminders for annual checkups, suggesting diagnostic tests, prescribing specially formulated pet food (available exclusively at veterinarians' offices), etc. This hypothesis entails that the rate of increase in amount spent by dog owners versus cat owners should be roughly equal, since the vets that are doing the selling have both kinds of owners as clients.

Expand full comment

AnonymousWhat argument, rather sounds more like a rant.An argument is an attempt to find the truth. However, in the end you only have your worse best conclusion. All conclusion without the truth are a pride of sin.

The argument's there, in my first paragraph, but I can't take credit. Yvain gets priority for catching the confound in Hanson's thought experiment. He or she, in fact, posted it as the first comment to Hanson's post!

Expand full comment

corrections;

worst.

sin of pride

Expand full comment

Anonymous

What argument, rather sounds more like a rant.

An argument is an attempt to find the truth. However, in the end you only have your worse best conclusion. All conclusion without the truth are a pride of sin.

Expand full comment

I agree pregnancy accounts for some added fem doc visits, but it is hard to see how an 7% effect can account for the overall added 43% visits.

Expand full comment

The spending on pets has not increased uniformly. The number of households with pets is increasing and the number that spend zero on veterinary care is increasing. If more are spending zero, that implies that those that are spending money are spending more, that is the spending is non-uniform.

Which makes sense. There are lots of families without health insurance. Presumably if you are not buying health care for yourself or your children, you wouldn't buy it for your pets.

Expand full comment

You haven't actually refuted Stephen R Diamond's argument here- nobody (even a hypothetical 'perfect individual') deserves true fanboyism, so shut up.

Expand full comment

I'm curious to know how much of the difference is a function of selective breeding designs being more prominent among dogs than cats. Essentially, certain breed traits are determined by specific purposes, as opposed to longevity. So, bassetts are probably an archetypal example. It's an impractical breed for most, and carries considerable health risks.

Expand full comment

It's true that cats keep their problems to themselves, but this sure didn't decrease my cat's medical bills any.

Expand full comment

Hanson casts a very wide net in his posts. The scope is great though the extent maybe limited at times. Cut the man some slack and continue to enjoy the ride.

Expand full comment

So it would be very interesting to know if dogs live longer relative to cats now that they did in the past.

OT:Another interesting pet related analysis:Many people are running around blaming childhood obesity on high fructose corn syrup but according to Garett Jones the rate of pet obesity has climbed in a similar fashion to childhood obesity.

Expand full comment