equivalences across intensities are possible once the time component is introduced (an assumption I don’t share)
How do you compare experiences of different intensity and duration? For example, how would you decide between averting 10 h of annoying pain, or 1 h of hurtful pain. I would assign intensities to experiences based on the time trade-offs I would make (all else equal; experiencing more pain may be worth it for instrumental reasons), and then calculate the total welfare from the product between intensity (positive or negative) and duration.
One could have the view that welfare reforms are only worth it they decrease the time in each of WFI’s 4 categories of pain. However, these categories could be further broken down into ones with a narrower range of intensity. For consistency, I believe people with that view would only be able to say that a welfare reform is worth it if it decrease the time in pain at any given level of intensity. There is a practically continuous spetrum of possible pain intensities, and I assume it would be extremely difficult to measure them all. In this case, it would be very difficult to determine whether any welfare reform is worth it.
Hi Wladimir.
How do you compare experiences of different intensity and duration? For example, how would you decide between averting 10 h of annoying pain, or 1 h of hurtful pain. I would assign intensities to experiences based on the time trade-offs I would make (all else equal; experiencing more pain may be worth it for instrumental reasons), and then calculate the total welfare from the product between intensity (positive or negative) and duration.
One could have the view that welfare reforms are only worth it they decrease the time in each of WFI’s 4 categories of pain. However, these categories could be further broken down into ones with a narrower range of intensity. For consistency, I believe people with that view would only be able to say that a welfare reform is worth it if it decrease the time in pain at any given level of intensity. There is a practically continuous spetrum of possible pain intensities, and I assume it would be extremely difficult to measure them all. In this case, it would be very difficult to determine whether any welfare reform is worth it.