Economic logic
by Benjamin on June 10, 2009
Your reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane… Your thoughts [provide] a concrete example of the unbelieveable alienation, reductionist thinking, social ruthlessness and the arrogant ignorance of many conventional ‘economists’ concerning the nature of the world we live in.
Wrote José Lutzenberger, Brazil’s then-secretary of the Environment, to Larry Summers in 1991 when Summers was still chief economist at the World Bank, in response to a memo by Summers on how low income countries should bear the burden of all ‘health impairing’ pollution from the industrial countries as the lower per capita income would make it more efficient to reduce the life-spans of people in these countries, as Summers put it:
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.
This quote and story from Frank Ackerman’s new book Poisoned for Pennies which I am currently enjoying on how and why cost-benefit analysis is not the transparent, all-encompassing idea which economic analysts want it to be. Expect more along these lines from me, as conference season intensifies.
Ackerman, Frank. 2008. Poisoned for Pennies: The Economics of Toxics and Precaution. London: Island Press
Tags: Applied Economics, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Frank Ackerman, Larry Summers, Logic
“on how and why cost-benefit analysis is not the transparent, all-encompassing idea which economic analysts want it to be”
True. There are several very “humanistic” factors that we may never understand the true cost/benefit of (human life, dignity, values, freedoms etc). Good post, though remarkably disturbing.
More spam. Goodness, what sort of questionable Ukrainian websites did this blog advertise to
I don’t know how we managed to get so lucky on the Spam bot routes, but we are trying to fight it as best we can. Maybe not successfully, but you should see the spam folder – it’s impressive…
For Gary, we will be updating the blog several times a week, although I can’t promise we’ll be keeping to just this theme as the writers have wide interests within economics and policy-making, but the cost-benefit discussion will continue for a bit as I am deep into Frank Ackermans “Poisoned for Pennies” which you might enjoy on this issue.
For Brandt.W. – yes disturbing, but let me continue in a seperate post.