Macabre Explanation of Opportunity Costs

[tcpip]

For those who haven't seen it...

I think dead children should be used as a unit of currency. I know this sounds controversial, but hear me out.

Comments

You keep doing it

[goumindong]

"better economic outcomes, e.g. higher productivity."

why is more productivity better?

A: Because of our moral beliefs about what is good and what isn't. \

Lets get a bit deeper

"I brought up GDP because the person I commented to (ie, not you) implied that taking social considerations into economics produces better economic outcomes"

GOOD GOD YES. Taking social considerations necessarily makes economic prescriptions better.

To make this easy to understand, lets say that economics was perfect and that it was able to tell us exactly what changes when we modify any economic parameter.

If that is the case then the only way that we can get better economic outcomes is if we have the best maximization conditions. I.E. if we choose to maximize the social situation precisely in the "best" way. Any situation where we get closer to the ideal social structure is one in which economic outcomes are necessarily better.

Alright, now that we have covered the basics of this system, does it work if we relax the assumptions a bit? A: Yes it does. Economics does not need to be perfect in order to be better (or at least, have better expectations), rather we can say that so long as economics is not entirely wrong in how it provides for changes we can say that a better social maximization will likely provide better economic outcomes.