Another similar point drawn from Sen is that an exclusive SWB focus deprioritizes providing resources to people who are better able to psychologically adapt to bad circumstances.
I think the example he uses is a person who has been poor all of their life (and therefore used to it) vs. a person who recently became poor, who might subjectively feel worse about it. He believes that it’s counterintuitive to say that we should prioritize allocating resources to the second person over the first person.
Thanks for writing this—I really enjoyed it.
Another similar point drawn from Sen is that an exclusive SWB focus deprioritizes providing resources to people who are better able to psychologically adapt to bad circumstances.
I think the example he uses is a person who has been poor all of their life (and therefore used to it) vs. a person who recently became poor, who might subjectively feel worse about it. He believes that it’s counterintuitive to say that we should prioritize allocating resources to the second person over the first person.