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Sorry, I'll talk about Titmus as I see fit. I do not object if you do, but my point was the you should not criticise him for failing to explain his arguments on this forum when, given that he's a British sociologist, he probably doesn't even know it exists! More important is the role of commodification in altruism. The incentive for altruism is either it is to make the giver feel good, or as to participate in a non tradeable insurance system. This view appears to presuppose that people are utility maximising agents and that altruism can be seen as just interdependent utility functions, or that "altruistic acts" are just ways of signalling participation in an informal insurance contract. I know that economists like to see everything in this way, but I'm not convinced that it really sheds much light on the real drivers of human behaviour - particularly in the case of blood donations where the donour and recipients are anonymous to each other.
"Commodification may reduce or improve the warm and fuzzy feeling, but to change from a non tradeable insurance system to a semi tradable one increases choice - which allows for and is utility enhancing itself." Again many economists like to assume that additional choice is automatically utility enhancing, or at worst neutral, as agents can choose to remain with their pre-existing consumption bundle. However, when transactions cots and psychological phenomena such as 'fear of regret' are considered, the idea that more choice is automatically neutral or better breaks down. "So, in America, people may substitute labour to pay for other medical services which are more effective than increasing quality and quantity of the blood supply." Right, so if I've unfuddled this correctly, you think that introducing commercial relations is good because, even though it may result in diseased blood and reduced supply, the greater choice and wealth that you believe would flow from the commercial system would give people the means to substitute out of blood and into other medical services - plaster casts, perhaps? Sorry, but I don't buy it, and when it comes to blood, neither should you. Richard Smart
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