The Old Saw

Just as there is a mathematically fool-proof way of deciding whether to keep your house in the wake of a mortgage debacle, so Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is the new "old saw."

Simply figure out whether what you have benefits, more than costs, you.

I'm thinking of things like your job, your neighborhood and your children. Are they really worth the high gas, high tax and high stress cost to you? When was the last time you got more than a cost-of-living raise, more than a wave from the neighbors and more than a request from the kids?

Now consider this same method being used on things like the air that you breathe, the water that you drink and the backyard that you enjoy. Why shouldn't a microeconomic tool, like a new "old saw", be used to evaluate what is too dear to you to be treated objectively?

Mark Sagoff in The Rise And Fall Of Ecological Economics is not so hopeful. He writes, "After congressional committees, administrative agencies and the courts tear through them, the political battles that CBA is supposed to inform are settled in terms of liability, responsibility, authority and legality - not welfare maximization."

In other words, the traditional argument for the primacy of individual rights that do not impinge upon the defined rights of others is the old saw that still has some bite. 

Your right to clear every tree from your property, to use chemicals on your grass, put pesticide on your plants and flowers and to operate cars and equipment that spew hydrocarbons is defended against the cost to future generations. The benefit of personal convenience outweighs the cost to the environment for one schooled in the ABC's rather than CBA.

Or, as Mr. Sagoff puts it, the drunk (with privilege?) uses the lamppost (national policy?) for support more than illumination.

Still, putting a price on everything that fosters the common good, as much as leveling a fine on everything that has a detrimental effect, doesn't seem to cut it. There are some things that just defy calculation, let alone monetization.

The Bible reminds us that what we treasure beyond benefit, we love beyond cost. That "old saw" cuts deep since it is double-edged. Unfortunately the Bible doesn't tell us what we should treasure.

I'll put my faith where moths and rust cannot corrode, where clean air and waterways are invaluable, and where I've left my property, if not my bank account, better off than before. I'll put my hope in hearts, not heads. And I think you know what I love - ditties like "I see, I see" said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.