Gay marriage and probabilities Gay marriage, states of the worl

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by jay santos

But it's still too difficult for me to swallow. I think there's a right and wrong in civil rights, and one has a responsibility to push for the right. So I can't agree with using the model to evaluate the issue. Or maybe I'm still not internalizing Pelagius' model.

Jay, I don't want to suggest that there aren't limitations and you certainly can't approach all problems from that perspective and it certainly has an ammoral component to it. However, I suspect some of the problem to applying this more broadly for many is the use of the language of marginal benefit and cost to talk about some very important things. Also, when I consider marginal benefit and costs I have a very broad notion of measuring benefits and costs. Things you call "right" or "wrong" have tremeduous value to you and many other people. I assume you would be willing to pay very high costs to maintain some of those things. In some cases you may be willing to give your live (which is probably worth at lest $5 Million). A social planner seeking to mazimizes societal welfare would clearly incorporate that.


And yes Jay is right that the issue is not about money and we can abstract from the problem of wealth constraints binding. That was just a convenient way to talk about things. What matters is happiness (utility). Waters passion and willingness to die for some causes can be valued correctly (at least conceputally) by the welfare mazimizing social planner.