Comments on: What is the opportunity cost of your turkey? http://www.thepublicphilosopher.com/2009/11/20/what-is-the-opportunity-cost-of-your-turkey/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:46:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Todd http://www.thepublicphilosopher.com/2009/11/20/what-is-the-opportunity-cost-of-your-turkey/comment-page-1/#comment-8245 Todd Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:07:23 +0000 http://www.thepublicphilosopher.com/?p=351#comment-8245 The problem is that this often creates a false dichotomy: either I spend $20 on a store-bought turkey and donate $50 to a food shelter or I spend $70 on a free-range local organic turkey. The problem is that most individuals who would even begin to engage in this calculus are not counting every dollar. But when it comes to doing the right thing, they begin to do so. No one said that they had to budget $50 to do good on Thanksgiving, and that that $50 could either go to a human or a turkey. Even if one had a tight budget for the meal, I wonder how many bottles of wine or pies or hors d'oeuvres these same people gave up. I agree that people waste a ton of money at Whole Foods, and that money could better be spent on other positives. But people probably waste more on driving, cable, expensive clothing, etc. Yet somehow this is never lessened in order to buy mosquito nets for Ghanaians. The problem is that this often creates a false dichotomy: either I spend $20 on a store-bought turkey and donate $50 to a food shelter or I spend $70 on a free-range local organic turkey. The problem is that most individuals who would even begin to engage in this calculus are not counting every dollar. But when it comes to doing the right thing, they begin to do so. No one said that they had to budget $50 to do good on Thanksgiving, and that that $50 could either go to a human or a turkey. Even if one had a tight budget for the meal, I wonder how many bottles of wine or pies or hors d’oeuvres these same people gave up.

I agree that people waste a ton of money at Whole Foods, and that money could better be spent on other positives. But people probably waste more on driving, cable, expensive clothing, etc. Yet somehow this is never lessened in order to buy mosquito nets for Ghanaians.

]]>