Reply to Ted and Brad

[Brad DeLong]

>Brad DeLong wrote:
>
>>I'm willing to assert that watching your children starve is more 
>>painful to you than eating grilled Hoffman Farm chicken breast with 
>>pancetta, garlicky chard, and sweet corn polenta is pleasurable to 
>>me...
>
>But how much more do some diners enjoy the grilled Hoffman Farm 
>chicken breast etc. because of the knowledge that others are, if not 
>starving, dining on beans and rice?
>
>Doug

Can I momentarily escape from utilitarian into deontological ethics, 
and say that because taking pleasure in the (relative) pain of others 
is cruel and immoral, we won't count that source of pleasure as a 
plus in our utilitarian calculations?

Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" comes to mind...

Brad DeLong