Recently I was wondering if the old saying “two wrongs don’t make a right” is in fact universally true. If not then perhaps that represents something of the flip side to the coin for good intentions and the road to hell.
What had me wondering about that was recalling a theory I heard about years ago in grad school, The Theory of Second Best. The linked wiki does seem to suggest additional reasons why good intentions many well produce harms.
As described in the wiki, there is no suggestion that rather than attempting to resolve a market failure in one area of the economy, seeing to move that sub market either further away from its optimal or at least to another non-optimal position might be welfare improving in general sense. But I don’t think there was anything that suggests that could not be the case.
Leaving aside all the hard work to prevent a slide into some the ends justify the means type argument or conclusion, if there is scope for the idea that two wrongs, under certain conditions, can in fact make right (or “righter”) then not taking that in to consideration might lead us to misassess the risks to be managed.
I did like the post, and am not sure if this comment is more about some second-order level aspect or not.
Recently I was wondering if the old saying “two wrongs don’t make a right” is in fact universally true. If not then perhaps that represents something of the flip side to the coin for good intentions and the road to hell.
What had me wondering about that was recalling a theory I heard about years ago in grad school, The Theory of Second Best. The linked wiki does seem to suggest additional reasons why good intentions many well produce harms.
As described in the wiki, there is no suggestion that rather than attempting to resolve a market failure in one area of the economy, seeing to move that sub market either further away from its optimal or at least to another non-optimal position might be welfare improving in general sense. But I don’t think there was anything that suggests that could not be the case.
Leaving aside all the hard work to prevent a slide into some the ends justify the means type argument or conclusion, if there is scope for the idea that two wrongs, under certain conditions, can in fact make right (or “righter”) then not taking that in to consideration might lead us to misassess the risks to be managed.
I did like the post, and am not sure if this comment is more about some second-order level aspect or not.