Consequencences

Last Tuesday the IBA representative came and dropped off a calendar. a few yeqars ago IBA changed from calendars which had "old" farm pictures to recent "farm" pictures. Many of the recent photos look more like a second home than a farm. However, to me, the real difference is that the old pictures always were filled with people.

On October 3, 2010 Philippa Foot died. She created what is known a s the "Trolley Problem": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem#Overview

In the original problem, which Foot developed, a runaway trolley in heading toward four workers on the track. If you through a switch, the four will be saved but one man working on the spur will die. Do you throw the switch? Most would.

A variation was developed by Judith Thompson. There is no switch but, the trolley can be stopped by throwing a heavy object off the bridge from where the observer is standing. The only heavy object is a fat man - big enough to stop the trolley - he would be killed. Most people would not throw the fat man. The numbers are the same, one death saves several lives.

These are ethical problems. Change the problem to economics, dairy economics, and everything about ethics goes out the door.

Several dairies fall and one is left standing. This is all done in the name of efficiency. However, is there a benefit to society? Depopulating rural America is not in anyone's long-term interest.

I suspect the divorce of ethics from economics is primarily in the manner in which the problem is stated.

How Many

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/how-many-reporters-would-work-for-the-washington-post-for-1025-an-hour

How Many Reporters Would Work for the Washington Post for $10.25 an Hour?
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Sunday, 10 October 2010 07:33
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According to the Washington Post, if the answer is not many, then we need to bring in immigrant reporters. That is exactly the logic it used in a discussion of the fact that most native born American citizens are unwilling to do farmwork for this wage.

Economists would ordinarily say that the lack of a labor supply at a given price suggests that the wage is too low. However, the Post only considers this fundamental economic principle in passing. It is likely that if farmworkers received $60,000 a year, with health care benefits, there would be no shortage of U.S. citizens willing to do this work.

Of course this would raise the price of farm products, but it would be much cheaper to advertise in the Washington Post if its reporters worked for $10.25 an hour. The lower cost of advertising would be passed on in lower prices for groceries, cars and other items advertised in the paper. At least this is what people who believe in economics would say.