Thread by @GeorgeSelgin

As a _person_ I have moral principles (believe it or not). But I am a consequentialist when it comes to arguing matters of economic policy, for two simple reasons:

https://twitter.com/disinthrallment/status/1419299330717097989

(1) though it helps us to anticipate the consequences of various policy choices, economic analysis tells us nothing about whether those choices are or are not "moral" in the way that deontological ethics might;

and (2) different people hold different moral principles. Economics may allow me to convince them--in some, not all, cases--of the merits or shortcomings of some policy, without asking them to change those principles.

Of course it might be worth my while in some cases to try to get others to share my own ethical norms. But if I do that, I'm not doing so as an economist. That's simply not what economics is about.

The confusion of ethical arguments with economic ones makes for bad economics and, I dare say, some crappy ethics to boot!