Economists see morality in shades of gray

Two students were talking, one a guy and the other a girl. They had known each other almost their entire lives and got along very well. They were talking about philosophy, as students tend to do. The guy asked the girl (hypothetically, they had seen a movie where this was part of the plot) if she would sleep with him for $1 million dollars.

She thought about it, she had known him for a long time and knew he was a good guy, and she knew she could do a lot with $1 million dollars and she would never have to work again. So, she said she would.

Then he asked her if she would sleep with him for $10 dollars.

Affronted, she said "Of course not! What kind of girl do you think I am?"

He said "Well we've already established that, now we're haggling over price."

I am so going to make this into a poll.

You can make this next one into a poll if you like.


A developed nation and a developing nation were talking. The developed nation has known the developing nation since it was a simple dictatorship, and watched as the people used peaceful protests to force free elections and take control of their government. The developed nation asked a hypothectical question: "Would you dispose of our toxic waste if we paid you $500/ton?" (This was a good deal for the developed nation because it would cost $800/ton to dispose of it inside its borders.)

At first the developing nation considered refusing outright. Then it thought what it could do with that money, since it would only cost $100/ton to dispose of it properly. It could use the extra $400 from each ton to install wells in the villages where the villagers get their water from surface water, and thus are exposed to many diseases. It could buy food and distribute it amongst the impoverished people, since many of its citizens die of malnutrition each year. It could provide health care to all its people, since many of them die from illnesses that could be prevented with $5 of medicine. And after all, all those problems are much much greater than any problems a properly maintained toxic waste dump would cause.

So, it agreed.

Unfortunately, the citizens of the developed nation felt a strong sense of moral outrage at dumping its toxic waste onto another country. They would rather prevent this moral outrage and feel good about themselves than help a developing nation solve most of its basic social problems. So the voters and their representatives nearly unanimously refused the agreement.

Which is just as well, since the newly elected leaders of the developed nation were just as corrupt as the old dictator, and would have taken the whole $500/ton for themselves and left the toxic waste out in the environment with no preventative controls.

Wasn't the first quote by Churchill?

I think so.

Alexa