You, Aristotle, and an Orthodox Economist Walk into a Bar

You walk into a bar accompanied by Aristotle and an orthodox economist.

The bartender asks you, "What will it be, buddy?" You scan the bar to see what sort of drinks are available. You notice one you like.

But before you can order, the bartender injects you with a drug that makes you prefer dirty dishwater.

"I'll have the dirty dishwater," you say. The bartender serves the dirty dishwater and you drink happily from the glass.

Having stood back until this point, Aristotle steps forward, strokes his beard, and says, "Something isn't right here." The orthodox economist replies, "Aristotle, you silly old fool, as this person has choices and selected the dirty dishwater in the absence of coercion, it seems all okay to me. He could have chosen Bud Light but he chose dirty dishwater instead. Respecting this person requires that we accept his choice and not ask from whence his preferences come."

Later Aristotle and the bartender get into a heated discussion over wallpaper. A fight ensues and the police shut the place down. Aristotle is told to never return to the bar.

(Someone will undoubtedly say, "Well economics just takes preferences as given." My response: claiming that giving people "what they want" is the hallmark of a good economy (without considering the content of their preferences) is a strong, and perhaps unsupportable, ethical stance. At the very least this position must be argued for rather than just asserted as obviously acceptable. Further, it has been argued that economic life--particularly in capitalism--shapes people's preferences. Preferences are not given from outside the economic system but are partly endogenous to the economic system.)

(Further, Saint John Stuart Mill believed that while we must accept people's choices, society had an obligation to help develop preferences of the "higher" sort amongst the population.)