Ethics Audits

> From time to time I have a radical and impractical thought, for example:
"ethics audits" of public policy. An ethics audit would estimate
anticipated and actual effects of a policy on happiness distribution.
> Happiness is linked to wealth in a diminishing-return relation, but
involves such factors as fairness, self respect, health, stability,
safety, comfort, convenience, cultural involvement, educational
opportunities, employment opportunities, recreational opportunities,
social opportunities, fellowship, love, hope, purposefulness,
accomplishment, relief of anxiety, ability to accept limits, etc.
> The imaginary ethics audits would analyze policy effects not only across the socioeconomic spectrum but also across genders, regions, ethnicities, nations, religions and especially across time to future generations.
> In my opinion, the main policies of Republican administrations
and congresses deserve negative ethics scores: passing tax laws that
further enrich the wealthy, cripple Social Security and burden future
generations with our expenditures; failing to address resource waste,
environmental degradation and the population explosion; ignoring export
of middle-class-ladder jobs to maximize corporate profits and trade
imbalance; killing 1/2 million and humiliating millions of Arabs for
reasons that would not justify war even if true.