> Speaking as an economist, I tend to get nervous when other economists talk about circumstances where "morality trumps economics."
Some examples where morality trumps economics that might help to calm you:
- Child labour is illegal in the civilized world
- Slavery is illegal in all or most countries (despite slave labour being more, um, economical than paid labour)
- Emergency services like fire, police, paramedics don't demand payment up-front.
> Companies can't just push one lever to maximum and expect nothing else to change.
They should expect profits to fall. That can happen during a pandemic. Act of God and all that.
> But most importantly, we don't need it. Yes, we've seen some small-time punks buy up too much hand sanitizer, but the big manufacturers are being decent.
And we should gamble our lives on the continued decency of profit-maximizing corporations.
Some examples where morality trumps economics that might help to calm you:
- Child labour is illegal in the civilized world
- Slavery is illegal in all or most countries (despite slave labour being more, um, economical than paid labour)
- Emergency services like fire, police, paramedics don't demand payment up-front.
> Companies can't just push one lever to maximum and expect nothing else to change.
They should expect profits to fall. That can happen during a pandemic. Act of God and all that.
> But most importantly, we don't need it. Yes, we've seen some small-time punks buy up too much hand sanitizer, but the big manufacturers are being decent.
And we should gamble our lives on the continued decency of profit-maximizing corporations.