Our only understanding of what it is reasonable to do is based on efficiency and "cost-benefit" calculation.
If our behavior is to be governed only by cost-benefit calculations, and not by moral standards, we are in pretty bad shape.
But there are yet more fundamental reasons to treat the cost-benefit calculation with a grain of salt.
"Decisions are made on very narrow cost-benefit calculations."
If we are committed to biodiversity, economists can help make the cost-benefit calculations critical to obtaining the most bang for a buck.
He has proposed that all agencies' cost-benefit calculations include the "life expectancy" method and the simpler "statistical lives" approach.
Some people, however, are suggesting that certain issues are not susceptible to the usual approach, even when cost-benefit calculations are made.
The essence of the European Union, ladies and gentlemen, transcends economic cost-benefit calculations.
That is why the result does not provide maximum security, but only precisely the level determined by the cost-benefit calculation.
But the cost-benefit calculation is entirely different in the Brentwood school district, where 86 percent of the students qualify for federal free or reduced-price lunches.
