A spot of economics with your coffee?

I'm reading the Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg...and loving it. For anyone that has studied Economics, or just has a healthy interest in the world and its workings, this is a brain-teasing piece of work.

One quote that I am left pondering over my coffee is this:

By the standards of economics, a policy that does nothing but encourage people to work harder and die wealthy is a bad policy.

...discuss.