Priceless

Embraced by an increasing number of politicians as a reasonable tool for weighing public policy options, cost-benefit analysis assigns monetary values to everything from the prevention of disease, to a stable climate, to the protection of endangered species. Although our common sense tells us that these things exist outside the realms of the market, this destructive form of economic analysis is based on the flawed premise that everything has a price. By substituting ill-advised economic algorith…