Michael Blastland
speaker
745 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2011
last heard Aug 2011
Michael Blastland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Do we prefer Emily's health, Alice's wealth, or Jane's happiness?
Anyone else want to have a go?
Do you not care about Alice's poverty?
Throw in moral values and there's no simple calculus.
But notice how these young economists do like trying.
Some say economics is the devil, even putting a price on life.
To others that's cheap.
Economics, they say, is more moral than its critics, exactly because it has learnt to face honest choices such as who's health and life to save and who's not.
Where some see selfishness, others see self-reliance, a virtue, or freedom.
Some want higher tax for the common good, others see tax as theft or waste.
And the common good?
Weasel words for dependency.
This is economics with almost no economics.
It's moral philosophy.
Isn't that where we began?
Will economics ever be less than up to its neck in moral argument?
Some thought they'd escaped all that, but who really can be surprised at the strength of feeling in Greece, here, everywhere, among economists as everyone else?
We've seen some strikes and riots.
To my right is the Parthenon, the temple of the goddess Athena.
To the left is the ancient Agora, the marketplace.
Showing 721–740 of 745 · page 37 of 38
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