There are possible ways to die that are worse than old age. They are not how you are going to die if you’re raised as food.
Who would it be a cost to?
You. It would be good for you if you existed, and it cannot be good for you if you don’t exist. It can’t be bad for you either, but opportunity costs aren’t real costs. They’re what you get when you set something else as a baseline.
So you’re OK with being tortured by matrix lords?
More to the point, I don’t think not existing is an opportunity cost. Who would it be a cost to?
There are possible ways to die that are worse than old age. They are not how you are going to die if you’re raised as food.
You. It would be good for you if you existed, and it cannot be good for you if you don’t exist. It can’t be bad for you either, but opportunity costs aren’t real costs. They’re what you get when you set something else as a baseline.
… point.
Surely dying young has a higher opportunity cost than dying of old age, regardless of other costs?
True, but it’s still lower than the opportunity cost of not being born at all.
So you admit killing animals for food is wrong, but claim vegetarianism is worse because it creates less lives?
That sounds wrong. If there was a weird cult that birthed lots of children and killed them painlessly at 18, I would try to shut it down.
Indeed.
EDIT: this seems relevant.
Huh?
I’m saying that raising people for food would be better than not raising them at all (so long as their lives are worth living).
I’m given to understand that on factory farms, animals lives are not worth living. As such, vegetarianism is good.
Ah, OK. That makes more sense.
I thought you were claiming that the utility of being born outweighed the disutility of growing up in a factory farm, dying violently etc.