At 08:39 AM Friday 9/15/2006, Nick Arnett wrote:
I don't think there is an economic formula in existence that justifies making money in a cause for which people are giving their very lives.
And yet for most of the world's history that has been a very real part of the economic system. It still is in many cases, even in this country . . . coal mining, frex, or other jobs involving underground tunneling, where the expression "a man a mile" talks about the human cost of performing the job. Even in many less intrinsically dangerous situations, the difference between eliminating 99.9% of the expected casualties and absolute safety becomes a matter of diminishing marginal returns as the cost of eliminating that last 0.1% works out to perhaps trillions of dollars per life saved.
(I am not mentioning this to make light of your argument about the current war, but just to point out that in many other cases we accept a human cost as necessary part of the cost of getting a job done.)
-- Ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
