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The argument was that the example given wasn't necessarily a Pareto improvement, even if one was trying to put aside issues of social justice by invoking econom
by foobarqux 14y ago
The argument was that the example given wasn't necessarily a Pareto improvement, even if one was trying to put aside issues of social justice by invoking economics.
- yummyfajitas 14y agoAssuming that the open source version is at least as good as a doctor, how is it not a Pareto improvement? "Social justice" is a typically poorly defined, loftily written way of replacing "I'm jealous" with "it's not faaaiir".
- foobarqux 14y agoBecause, as I said "there is a psychological, emotional or social cost in having some people much worse off than others". In order to invoke Pareto optimality you must define utility functions and you can justify essentially any policy by omitting costs and externalities in those functions.