[dkarl]

Economists pursue productivity single-mindedly and forget that their freedom to think about productivity and nothing else is based on the assumption that certain moral abuses are outlawed. Only the most deluded ideologue really thinks that economic efficiency just happens to coincide with human moral values. Sure, if you bring up eight-year-olds working in coal mines, a few people will say, "But that must have been caused by government interference, because eight-year-olds working in coal mines is really quite economically suboptimal! I can tell it's economically suboptimal because thinking about it makes me feel bad!" But they are in the minority. Most economists take for granted that economic productivity should be pursued only in a context in which certain moral wrongs are outlawed.

I pointed out in an earlier thread that the sales department will agree with you that systems reliability affects the bottom line, but when it comes to setting priorities, they'll fight tooth and nail to get all engineering resources dedicated to new products and features, and zero dedicated to reliability and infrastructure. It's the same with economists: they agree in principle that there should be laws enforcing basic human decency, but when push comes to shove they can't bring themselves to subordinate economic considerations. It's garden-variety déformation professionnelle. They have a hard time accepting that the value they dedicate their professional lives to is occasionally in conflict with something higher.