Re: In Praise of Cheap Labor RE: WTO the rampage! (fwd)

Ernest N. Prabhakar (ernest@alumni.caltech.edu)
Thu, 09 Dec 1999 09:34:39 -0800


>
> On the other hand, I'm bothered by the willingness of free-market
> economists (Hazlitt and Landsburg, at least) to judge a policy entirely or
> almost entirely on its free-marketness. It sometimes seems like their
> normal senses of morality and aesthetics have been completely subsumed by
> this one criterion.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. One of my unwritten books is an attempt to
create a moral philosophy that is compatible with - but not driven by - free
market economics. Sort of like Gilder's Soul of Silicon idea.

I know everyone claims free market economics is value-neutral, which
strictly speaking may be true. But like many other sciences, a lot of
people make the leap that "whatever can't be measured doesn't matter."
Which is really a question of values (moral philosophy) not science.

One of these days...

------------
Ernest Prabhakar <ernest@apple.com>
Darwin Product Manager, Apple Computer, Inc.