The Skeptical Economist: Revealing the Ethics Inside Economics by Jonathan Aldred

Author:Jonathan Aldred
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Moral and Ethical Aspects, Theory, Economics, General, Business Ethics, Economics - Moral and Ethical Aspects, Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781844077052
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six - Pricing Life and Nature

Say that politicians could build a roundabout for $9 million and save one life. If the roundabout does not get built, it means that the politicians valued that life at less than $9 million. (Bjorn Lomborg, the ‘Skeptical Environmentalist'1)

Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the less developed countries?... The measurement of the costs of health-impairing pollution depends on the forgone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health-impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. (Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economist of the World Bank, in an internal memorandum of 1991 that was subsequently leaked2)

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