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Decius comments on Why economics is not a morality tale - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 04 June 2013 03:20PM

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Comment author: Decius 04 June 2013 07:49:54PM 0 points [-]

Does that reduce to "economically bad is morally bad"?

Is it economically and morally correct to spend $(x>1)*n dollars to remove a negative externality of $n? (For example, an airport which covers runway repairs by adding a surcharge to fuel sales will result in pilots who buy a lot of fuel for long flights subsidizing pilots who make lots of short flights. But charging a landing fee will require hiring someone to collect the landing fee; the fuel is self-serve.)

If the monopoly had sufficiently high fixed costs and decreasing marginal costs such that it made the most money at a price that is lower than the equilibrium price of a duopoly, would it still be economically bad? Would it still be morally bad?