They even forbid beneficial muggle-wizard trade, which probably results in the deaths of millions of muggles.
Insofar as everyone dies eventually, and thus the purpose of medicine in general may be thought of as life extension rather than death prevention, and magical healing vastly increases wizard lifespans, it may be said that forbidding beneficial muggle-wizard trade results in the deaths of billions of muggles. Every single muggle who dies of old age, magically-treatable illness or non-instantly-fatal injury is a muggle who would have lived significantly longer if not for the ban.
The wizard population is very small compared to the muggle population, and I don’t think there’s much in the way of reducing the amount of time wizards need to put into healing magic. (Compare this to the efficiencies gained from vaccination and antibiotics.)
The lack of wizard healing makes some difference, but probably more like tens or hundreds of thousands of muggles who don’t get healed.
On the other hand, if wizards were public about their abilities, a higher proportion of wizards (even low-powered wizards) in the muggle population would be identified and trained, and there would presumably be knowledge of methods for integrating wizard and muggle medicine. The results still wouldn’t be all muggles having access to the best of wizard healing magic.
Don’t forget potions. You could easily make use of muggle civilisation’s amazing mass production ability by having them automate every step but the ones that need magical power. The magic drain from potion creation is minimal, so one or a few wizards could effortlessly power a production line.
Muggles also happen to be very good at large-scale farming, which could easily be applied to the production of magical ingredients, even rare ones.
Add in wizards’ ability to cast permanent enchantments at no cost, and their vast array of utility spells (Vanishing Charms alone would be a godsend for any factory), and you have undreamt-of mass production potential.
Small population sizes aren’t an issue when you have two worlds’ worth of force multipliers.
if wizards were public about their abilities, a higher proportion of wizards (even low-powered wizards) in the muggle population would be identified and trained
There’s no such thing as a “low-powered wizard”, and all wizards in Britain are automatically detected magically (at birth?)
It is implied that in HPMOR there are—presumably third-world? - countries where they “receive no letters of any kind”. So potentially a complete breakdown of the masquerade might allow the least sane Muggle governments to track down and kidnap wizarding children for their own use. (I’m a little confused by this, though, since spontaneous untrained magic should be a serious issue if muggleborns aren’t being dealt with.)
Insofar as everyone dies eventually, and thus the purpose of medicine in general may be thought of as life extension rather than death prevention, and magical healing vastly increases wizard lifespans, it may be said that forbidding beneficial muggle-wizard trade results in the deaths of billions of muggles. Every single muggle who dies of old age, magically-treatable illness or non-instantly-fatal injury is a muggle who would have lived significantly longer if not for the ban.
The wizard population is very small compared to the muggle population, and I don’t think there’s much in the way of reducing the amount of time wizards need to put into healing magic. (Compare this to the efficiencies gained from vaccination and antibiotics.)
The lack of wizard healing makes some difference, but probably more like tens or hundreds of thousands of muggles who don’t get healed.
On the other hand, if wizards were public about their abilities, a higher proportion of wizards (even low-powered wizards) in the muggle population would be identified and trained, and there would presumably be knowledge of methods for integrating wizard and muggle medicine. The results still wouldn’t be all muggles having access to the best of wizard healing magic.
Don’t forget potions. You could easily make use of muggle civilisation’s amazing mass production ability by having them automate every step but the ones that need magical power. The magic drain from potion creation is minimal, so one or a few wizards could effortlessly power a production line.
Muggles also happen to be very good at large-scale farming, which could easily be applied to the production of magical ingredients, even rare ones.
Add in wizards’ ability to cast permanent enchantments at no cost, and their vast array of utility spells (Vanishing Charms alone would be a godsend for any factory), and you have undreamt-of mass production potential.
Small population sizes aren’t an issue when you have two worlds’ worth of force multipliers.
There’s no such thing as a “low-powered wizard”, and all wizards in Britain are automatically detected magically (at birth?)
It is implied that in HPMOR there are—presumably third-world? - countries where they “receive no letters of any kind”. So potentially a complete breakdown of the masquerade might allow the least sane Muggle governments to track down and kidnap wizarding children for their own use. (I’m a little confused by this, though, since spontaneous untrained magic should be a serious issue if muggleborns aren’t being dealt with.)