Can you compare apples and oranges? You certainly don't seem to have much trouble when you decide how to spend your money at the grocery store.

It was rather clear from the context that the "dust in the eye" was a very, very minor torture. People are not going blind. They are perfectly capable of dealing with it. It's just not 3^^^3 times as minor as the torture.

If you were to torture two people in exactly the same way, they'd suffer about equally. Why do you imply that's some sort of unanswerable question?

If you weren't talking about the ethical side, what were you talking about? He wasn't trying to compare everything about the two choices, just which was more ethical. It would be impossible if he didn't limit it like that.