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Warrigal comments on The Trolley Problem in popular culture: Torchwood Series 3 - Less Wrong
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There have been many similar situations historically - food supply was more or less equal to food demand, so if food supply got suddenly lower for whatever reason, there wasn't enough food for everyone, and some people had to die.
The usual algorithm was that the poor people would be priced out of the food market, until enough of them died to restore Malthusian equilibrium. Most of the dead would be children.
How is that morally different from the situation described in the post?
In the not-enough-food scenario, you have more bystander effect: the merchant doesn't necessarily feel like e's killing people by raising prices.