If it only saves one life it will be worth it
If it only saves one life, it will be worth it” – We often hear this phrase, which essentially is telling us that costs don’t matter. But costs do matter – a lot! If the course of action that is proposed actually causes much more harm than good, then it is not worth it. For example, the banning of DDT has cost millions of lives and debilitated many more people who did not die while achieving little or no benefit. The people who promoted that policy did not take those costs into account, did not balance the costs against the benefits, and thereby did far greater harm than good. A lack of accounting for the costs and the fact that the people setting the policy do not bear the costs themselves but rather are imposing them on others have been the source of great harm in our society.
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