I assert that, flawed as it is, money is the only metric available for making such comparisons.
I disagree. It's certainly a major one, but (for instance) - we don't place a value on human life and decide that the fine for murder must be greater than that amount in order to dissuade people. People litter - and the cost of the fine is set high enough to encourage them not to, not the cost of tidying up after them. Sometimes we merely decide that we want to achieve a certain goal for reasons other than the financial - and once we've done so finding the cheapest way to do so is a perfectly reasonable aim, but deciding on the goal in the first place is not done in a numerical/mechanical manner.
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Date: 2008-12-11 11:52 am (UTC)I disagree. It's certainly a major one, but (for instance) - we don't place a value on human life and decide that the fine for murder must be greater than that amount in order to dissuade people. People litter - and the cost of the fine is set high enough to encourage them not to, not the cost of tidying up after them. Sometimes we merely decide that we want to achieve a certain goal for reasons other than the financial - and once we've done so finding the cheapest way to do so is a perfectly reasonable aim, but deciding on the goal in the first place is not done in a numerical/mechanical manner.