For this blog post, I want you to think about a purchase you made recently — anything from a college application fee to a new skirt to a frappucino to a concert ticket. Please describe the purchase you made, the cost of the purchase, the reasoning that went into it, and the results of the purchase. Then, using Google or other methods, find another way you could have used the purchase cost that could have a greater effect on overall world happiness.
For example:
I spent roughly $12 on a large caffé Americano and lunch platter this weekend. I purchased this beverage because I wanted the pick-me-up that goes with caffeine on an early Sunday morning, which came when I drank it, and the food because I was hungry. Also, the purchase allowed me to log into the café’s WiFi network. Between the caffeine and the WiFi, I was more easily able to work on revising a lecture for my World Religions class, because I have trouble concentrating at my house.
With the $12, I could have purchased (from Episcopal Relief and Development) a mosquito net for a child in a malaria zone, which could help prevent the unnecessary death of a child exposed to the disease. Arguably, preventing one death by malaria produces more happiness and less pain — has a higher utility — than a slightly more streamlined World Religions lecture and my satisfied desire for caffeine.
Your comments are due by the end of tutorial (4PM) on Friday, 10/22.
