In this case, asking “What is right?” entails thinking about long-term solutions—specifically, how to foster civic-mindedness; asking “What works?” allows you to be more pragmatic and focus on on solving the problem of maintaining clean streets without tackling the much bigger and trickier issue of teaching good manners.
How does it make their thinking differ exactly? Why should we only ask “what works” with small vices?
In this case, asking “What is right?” entails thinking about long-term solutions—specifically, how to foster civic-mindedness; asking “What works?” allows you to be more pragmatic and focus on on solving the problem of maintaining clean streets without tackling the much bigger and trickier issue of teaching good manners.