I can't believe you have such scant regard for the value of human life.
But since you insist on looking at it in purely economic cost/benefit terms, the cost of the loss of a single life is put at $4.37 million by Stat's NZ.
That's what any policy intervention which saves a life is valued at by the Ministry of Transport & presumably other policy makers.
If the govt hadn't done what it did & given us one of the lowest deaths per capita in the world, & the extraordinary increase in life expectancy during a global pandemic which has killed well over 6 million people in 3 short years, we'd be looking at between 10,000 - 30,000 Kiwis losing their lives at an economic cost to the country of between $43 billion - $128 billion.
Around one third of the population are immunosuppressed at any given time, all these people have children, relatives, patients, employees, employers, businesses, and many others who depend on them.
Apart from that the health system would have collapsed.
To let all these people die & counter this with the argument our children having to pay interest rates of around 7% is just tragic!
In a pandemic there are only difficult choices, & worse ones & in my view we were incredibly lucky to have a PM at that time who was kind & compassionate but also with a steely resolve.
She saved tens of thousands of lives.
It is hard for some people to see & appreciate when terrible things are prevented from happening.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom...-nz-life-worth