Lawrence Summers served as secretary of the treasury in the Clinton administration and as director of National Economic Council in the Obama administration. He has been quoted as giving the following moral defense of the economic approach.
"There is nothing morally unattractive about saying: We need to analyze which way of spending money on health care will produce more benefit and which less, and using our money as efficiently as we can. I don't think there is anything immoral about seeking to achieve environmental benefits at the lowest possible costs."
Source: David Wessel, "Precepts from Professor Summers," Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2002.
It would be more moral to reduce pollution,
A. taking the cost into account because reducing pollution often reduces economic growth.
B. taking the cost into account because money spent on pollution reduction is not available for other worthy activities.
C. not taking the cost into account because pollution is potentially harmful to our health.
D. taking the cost into account because the total cost of reducing pollution is likely enormous.
E. not taking the cost into account because pollution reduction is typically associated with large benefits.
