Problems of Economy

There's one pretty glaring problem I have with studying economics, and it's really only glaring because I've also studied philosophy. This is a problem of ethics. You see, almost everything in economics that evaluates policy (which is actually quite a bit of it) has to operate within a Utilitarian framework. And I, personally, follow a much more Deontological and Virtue based ethical framework.

This is really coming out in one of my current classes, Cost Benefit Analysis. As you'd guess, in this class we look at the different costs and benefits of different policies and compare this to either other policies or the status quo (it's actually more complicated than it sounds). Obviously, the best option is to choose the policy that has the highest net benefits; if a policy has net costs the status quo is preferred.

During class and while reading, everything within me wants to scream that some things are worth doing - I'd even go so far as to say morally correct - no matter what the cost, and in spite of whatever benefits there are. Of course, this can't really be said in economics, because it's all about costs and benefits, and it's all about Utilitarianism.

At least economics doesn't go quite as far as Utilitarianism and say that the policy which has highest net benefits is the morally right one to choose, and should be implemented, but it gets pretty close when coupled with politics. And of course there are branches of economics that deal with other ethical frameworks, but still, it's definitely a Utilitarian world, and I'm definitely wearing spots in a world of mostly stripes.