Sunday, October 7, 2012

Chris Dillow — Efficiency Vs Sanctity

The point here is that efficiency is not an incontestable value. It collides with others, the belief in the sanctity of some goods.
Economists tend to have a tin ear here - they just don't hear the arguments against efficiency....
I don't say all this to take sides. I do so merely to show that values are contestable, but that a debate about them is possible.
Stumbling and Mumbling
Efficiency Vs Sanctity
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle (UK)

I would frame it the way that Peter F. Drucker did, "Efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things." Effectiveness involves choosing goals and this choice involves normative criteria, i.e., "values." efficiency is subordinate to effectiveness, since efficiency is about means and effective about goals, and means are subordinate to goals.

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