An Analysis of The Armchair Economist: Economics in Everyday Life by Steven E. Landsburg Essay

I never thought it to be possible for someone to be so caught up in an emotional ideology of economics and money until I read an excerpt from The Armchair Economist Economics in Everyday Life called Why I Am Not An Environmentalist by Steven E. Landsburg, because as much honest scrutiny and logic as he claims to apply to his arguments, they still somehow end up utterly illogical. This is why I see him more as The Emotional Economist.In the very beginning of the essay Landsburg informs us that economics is the science of competing preferences, and that environmentalism goes beyond science when it elevates matters of preference to matters of morality. This is all the discussion he provides on the basis of morality to this point. Logically speaking, why cant morality be a matter of preference? Why cant I decide that I would prefer to help preserve nature (with non-utilitarian motives) rather than pave that parking lot that I would otherwise so love to have? And I feel that his implication that such a conflict in preferences is or should be morally neutral is a gross attempt at suppressing our humanity in the interest of profit. Isnt morality or in other words virtue, what civilization needs to strive for more so then ever? I fear logic that excludes morality, for its conclusions could seldom be virtuous. It seems to me that in this introduction he is openly admitting that his concept of economics is corrupt.Next Landsburg stumbles over the irrevocability argument. Using the same example of paving, this is the environmentalist idea that wilderness should take precedence over parking because the decision to pave is irrevocable. Landsburg actually agrees with this idea, but goes on to argue that the decision to not pave is equally irrevocable. When I read this statement I knew which of the authors I would be arguing for this assignment. Lets look at some simple facts. We have a small...

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