[MD] Sin

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Stephen Hannon <stevehannon at gmail.com>:

> [Case]
> By what standard would you judge an economic system? I submit that an
> economic system is nothing if not a vehicle for determining and
> apportioning Value. The biggest problem with ours is that it places a
> numerical Value on all Values. Ford can conduct cost benefit analysis
> weighing the benefit in saved lives against the cost of fixing a gas
> tank. Pharmaceutical companies weight the cost of research against the
> number of persons afflicted with an ailment.
> 
> [Platt]
> When it comes to the economy (the production and distribution of goods
> and services) what would you suggest take the place of a numerical
> value on values? A government bureaucrat perhaps? Or you?
> 
> [Steve H]
> I believe Case said that the economic system places a numerical value
> on ALL Values.  He's not suggesting that placing a numerical Value on
> something is bad, but don't you think it is anti-dynamic to reduce all
> value to numbers?  What is your value in numbers Platt?  What about
> Quality's value in numbers?  I believe people have posted on this
> forum before as saying the definition of a cynic is "someone who knows
> the price of everyhting and the value of nothing" :-)

If you are talking about economics, you are talking about a specific realm of
human activity -- the creation, production and distribution of goods and 
services. There are a thousand and one other human activities that are non-
economic but replete with values, such as smoking peyote with friends in a Indian
tepee. Thus to claim the economic system places a numerical value on ALL values
is plain wrong. But values in the marketplace where goods and services are
exchanged are best measured numerically, i.e., by money. As Pirsig wrote in Lila:
"What's so vague about the New York stock exchanges? Aren't values what they're
dealing in? How about the U.S. Treasury? Who in this world is more specific than
the Internal Revenue Service?" The only substitute for money in an economy that I
know of is a whip, knife, gun or other weapon of physical force. Which do you
think is more moral?

Regards,
Platt

  
 
 



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