Physicist Leon Lederman died age 96 selling his Nobel Prize to pay medical costs | Hacker News Reader

Physicist Leon Lederman died age 96 selling his Nobel Prize to pay medical costs

independent.co.uk

55 pointslawrenceyan22 comments

How our society values accomplishments/fame...

A symbol for a lifetime of distinguished work vs an interesting but small part of a career.

This may contribute to many youths choosing fame and fortune instead of putting in the efforts to advance science and civilization. How this will play out in the long run could be worrisome.

"The American scientist later auctioned off his gold medal for $765,000 (£665,000) to help pay medical bills after being diagnosed with dementia. "

"The Nobel gold medal of the scientist who coined the phrase “God particle” to describe the Higgs boson – the subatomic particle that accounts for matter having mass – has been sold for $765,002 (£510,000) at auction in Los Angeles."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/leon-lederman-dea...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nobel-laureate-go...

"Well, Banksy’s phone booth is in the arms of the buyer who was able to pay $960,000 for it at a Phillips, De Pury & Luxembourg auction in 2014 – quite possibly after seeing it at the 2006 Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles – one which intended to draw attention to the legal aspects of graffiti art and was billed as a “three-day vandalized warehouse extravaganza.”

https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-a...

'How our society values accomplishments/fame...'? It does of course. How much was Lederman's $100,000 in 1988 (360,000 shared with two collaborators) in today's money? The interesting question is how much more should society single out for further special consideration those who have accomplishment and fame over and above the great mass of folk who have neither?

Back in 1998, I was 13. For some longer period (at least 8 weeks) I was in a very low mood - sort of existential crisis. By self-diagnosis, I would call it a (mild?) form of depression. When in bookstore my parents asked me to choose a book for myself and ended up with Polish edition of 'God Particle'. Not sure but probably I was more interested in the _god_ aspect than _particle_. Till today I remember some parts of the book quite well. Reading the book gave me a lot of hope and - very likely - directly triggered some recovery processes, which took another 3-5 months btw. I definitely would be a totally different person if - for longer time - spiralling down the dark thoughts rabbit hole.

Just now I realised, I wish Dr Lederman knew this story. Too late, unfortunately.

I never understood if the people who are willing to buy those (same goes for Olympic medals) are doing it out of some sort of “dignified charity” or are they so cynical that they are willing to own a badge of merit that someone else got.

I always wonder what they do with these afterwards how often are these returned to the original recipient or family? I’ve seen stories about people who found medals of honor at pawn shops and bought them to returned them.

I just simply can’t fathom owning something like this as a trophy.

Strategic investment, they purchase it now in the hopes that in the future someone else will purchase it for more as a historical artifact.

The guy that bought Watson's returned it.

lol... america should definitely get its healthcare game sorted...

Medicaid covers long term assisted care. But it requires you to spend down all your assets first, which is not unreasonable for end of life care. You can’t take them with you, and why should you get to save your assets to pass on to your kids while having taxpayers pay for your long term care?

What about passing your assets on to your wife?

Medicaid has special "spousal protections" to handle exactly this situation.

Perhaps so. However, it does seem likely that the absurd price of health care (by almost any measure—what other countries pay, by how prices would look in a functioning efficient market, etc.) factored into this.

Nursing home care is expensive because it’s extremely labor intensive. It’s easy to spend $30,000 a year just for someone to watch your kid 8 hours a day. Is it really that unreasonable to spend $50,000-100,000 per year for 24/7 care plus living quarters?

Then if we are too follow your logic, wouldn't it a much bigger priority to put a huge tax (at least 75%) on all inheritance over a certain amount (let's say $10 million)?

Yes, inheritance tax makes a lot more sense than a "dementia tax" (if you pay any attention to UK politics you'll have heard that expression).

What is all this love for middle class welfare? If your dad requires $50k a year in end of life care, why should he be able to leave you a $500k house in the suburbs? I guess it’s unlucky for you if you build up some assets then expensive end of life care wipes it out, but so what? Why do those folks deserve taxpayer support when so many, not even poor people, but median people, never managed to build up any assets at all?

I don’t have any problem with tax dollars helping the neediest, people who would fall below the minimum standard otherwise. I have a huge problem with tax dollars going to help protect the relative financial status and security of middle class families.

Wow, you know elsewhere with universal health care we don't require old people to spend their money..

We do, however, tax inheritance :)

Assuming that care/medication is resonably priced, like in some countries in Europe, Asia, etc. I wouldnt mind my taxes creating a buffer for vulnerable people. One day it might be me or you. In the US, prices are being over inflated because of the insurance system, so yea unless that issue is solved first, nobody would want their taxes going to an overpriced/corrupt health care system.

When I was a student in the UK (not a UK national) I had access to capped prescription medicine at 10USD max price. Even though I rarely used it, it's a great relief knowing you won't go bankrupt if you have a health issue. When I cut my hand once, I was treated in a UK hospital for free, no questions asked. Whats wrong with that?

Again this could only work if things are priced fairly. A blood test should be free or super cheap (<$50) if there is a legitimate reason to do so (relatives with heart disease), etc.

> I wouldnt mind my taxes creating a buffer for vulnerable people.

I would rather my tax dollars go to vulnerable people than to creating a buffer for often relatively wealthy older people so they can preserve their estates. End of life care is a fundamentally different issue than care for other people. I don’t want medical issues to bankrupt someone who has productive life ahead of them. At the same time, if we pay for end of life care for people who often have hundreds of thousands of dollars to their name, that’s less tax dollars we can spend on other things.

Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

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