There are two buttons in front of you; button A and Button B. Which do you press?

@PepsiColaP To pay respect?

@Elessar no to anal

@PepsiColaP good

@PepsiColaP *Presses ESC compulsively to quit*

@PepsiColaP What would you really choose though? You're an economics major right? I'd be interested to know your thought process on the matter.

@Eternity I feel like this is unrelated to economics and more so of a moral dilemma. It actually reminds me of the Trolley dilemma. I guess what one chooses to do depends entirely on what their moral beliefs are. For some it may seem like a moral requirement to save the greater number of people and choosing A is the only way to do so so they would choose A. This is in line w the school of consequentialism and basically making a decision based on maximisong value . Other people may argue that their emotional attachment to others is overpowering anything else which would mean saving the people they know ,which is also a valid argument. Personally I choose butt stuff

@PepsiColaP it doesn't [i]have[/i] to be unrelated to basic economic principles.

The numbers approach is cost analysis in its purest form after all.

Really what this scenario says about a person is if they love harder than they count, and if they have the strength to make sacrifices.

@Eternity according to who does it say that for someone?
I'm not sure you can really do a cost analysis on human lives unless if you see it as a numerical value alone . Is that how you see it and what you would choose?

@PepsiColaP it says that for anyone; it is objective. Can you overcome your own morality in order to save some over others? Are the ones who you know more important than the strangers that outnumber them?

These are concrete questions that are the same for everyone though different the answers may be. An attempt to flee the scenario, no matter how it is dressed, is still an attempt to flee.

You can't do a cost analysis on human lives? Are you sure? Pretty sure big pharma and wartime doctors have been doing it for years and years...

I would choose scenario B

Why?

Because I love my family and friends more than the faceless masses of the Earth, and my want to see them happy and safe is greater than my personal moral scruples.

@Eternity you don't understand. Who has said that any choice in this case scenario is such a specific analysis of others? It's a very generic question that like I already said resembles an ethical dilemma that's really not new at all.
Also either choice is based on personal moralities ,A or B. They are both motivated by what is deemed as morally correct to you. You say B because you love the people you love more than the faceless masses ,even if it is against your moral beliefs. It sounds like your moral beliefs are in actuality based on the gravity these people hold for you ,or what you describe as love. this is your personal ethics and what motivates you ,had it been otherwise you would have chosen otherwise .

@PepsiColaP [i]you[/i] don't understand what I am trying to say. But that's okay 👍🏼