--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Dan Minette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > > Behalf Of jdiebremse > > Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 7:43 AM > > To: Killer Bs Discussion > > Subject: Re: Wealthy couples travel to U.S. to choose baby's sex > > > > > > Leaving aside the number of people doing this because of a birth > > defect, you do realize that you are essentially arguing that this > > practice is o.k., so long as only rich people do it? The > > expense > > of the procedure shouldn't affect the morality of this procedure. > > If the procedure is moral and sensible for a few rich people to > > engage in, then it should be moral and sensible for everyone to > > engage in - should they have the opportunity. > > Some things are wrong, even if they only happen a few times. But, > there are other areas where ethics is consequence based. For > example, a rich people often use resources, such as fossil fuel, > at a rate that would be horrific if everyone used them at that > rate. Think of the increase in fuel usage if everyone in the > world had a private plane to travel where they wish. > > Yet, I don't think this means it is inherently immoral for someone > to have a private jet.
I have to say that your example did not convince me of the point. Presuming that everyone has a private jet in a market economy, presumably the prices would still reflect the new situation. In other words, as the number of people with private jets increased, the price of oil would increase to reflect the tradeoff of using oil for private jet flights vs. using the oil for other things. In order to keep flying the private jet as the price of oil rises, one would presumably have to provide increasing amounts of value to society through work or capital allocation or both. (Or one would presumably have to value the private jet flight more than the alternative goods and services one could have purchased.) In other words, to have reached a point where everyone had a private jet, we preumably did so at a price level equilibrium that reflects that fact that it really *was* the most efficient use of our oil to spend them on private jet flights. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
