At 07:41 19-7-01 -0400, John Giorgis wrote:
> >Let's say you spend $50 to take your girlfriend out to dinner. Do you do
> >that because you enjoy her company, or do you do that because you think
> >"when I spend that $50 on buying her dinner, she'll have sex with me later,
> >which I value at $100, so it's beneficial for me to take her out to dinner"?
> >(Forget for a moment that you're one of those "no sex before marriage"
> >people.)
>
>Forgetting also that I don't have a girlfriend (at least for the moment. :)
Note to self: next time you use this example, replace "girlfriend" with
"boyfriend". <grin>
>This is why I take her out to Maggiano's for
>dinner and not Le Bic Fin. I value the expereince at @$50, but not @$120.
Don't let her find out about that value. She might get upset when she
discovers she's worth less than $120 to you... :-)
> >Other example: unemployed people cost the country a lot of money in
> >Unemployment Benefits and Welfare, but they don't give anything in return.
> >The same goes for people who can't work because of some medical condition.
> >Based on a cost-benefit analysis, it would be economical to shoot them all.
> >It may cost you 25 cents per person for the bullet, but it will save you
> >billions of dollars in Social Security and Health Care expenses...
>
>Once again, you are making an incomplete analysis. I place a great deal
>of value on the protection of the "Right to Life" by the government, based
>on my religious views, my secular ethical views, and my desire for
>assurance that my Right to Life will be protected in the future.
But those are personal views, not economics. To paraphrase Pratchett: just
because it isn't nice doesn't mean it isn't economically sound.
>If you're willing to admit (along with Kat, Sonja, et al.) that all
>environmental proposals should be subjected to a thorough cost-benefit
>analysis, then I think that our discussion will be much more profitable.
Then we won't have a much more profitable discussion, because to us,
bleeding-heart environmentalists, the environment is *more* than something
you can put a price tag on.
Jeroen
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