I don’t agree that by failing to put a value on life you necessarily also fail to discover the concept of underuse. Doesn’t it follow immediately from the fact that you can have a positive externality that you would necessarily also have underuse?
Didn’t say it was an absolute—yes, you can certainly discover the concept of underuse even if you refuse to put a value on life. But your odds of doing so are lower than if you would have.
I’ll agree that they are lower, but I am not sure that they are significantly lower. It seems to me that ANY positive externality would be evidence for underuse and you can think of a large number of them without ever putting a value on life.
That said, I do think that it is obviously important to put a value on life so that you can do cost-benefit analyses.
I don’t agree that by failing to put a value on life you necessarily also fail to discover the concept of underuse. Doesn’t it follow immediately from the fact that you can have a positive externality that you would necessarily also have underuse?
Didn’t say it was an absolute—yes, you can certainly discover the concept of underuse even if you refuse to put a value on life. But your odds of doing so are lower than if you would have.
I’ll agree that they are lower, but I am not sure that they are significantly lower. It seems to me that ANY positive externality would be evidence for underuse and you can think of a large number of them without ever putting a value on life.
That said, I do think that it is obviously important to put a value on life so that you can do cost-benefit analyses.