Tuesday, June 29, 2004
From the "I've been studying for Econ too long" department
So I'm at Mass today. And it occurs to me that perhaps you could consider Christ to be an externality problem. Now bear with me here. Man doesn't realize that production of sin is harmful because he doesn't realize the impact it has on his relation with God. So, while it seems to increase his utility (ugh Mill) it really decreases the pie of utility available to mankind. However, if, in traditional econ-style, God and man merge, all the externalities will be gone because there's nothing external anymore. So, then sin will be produced in the optimal amount, that is, zero. Heresy anyone?
