Human Resources: Are they Worth Preserving?

In this paper I shall argue that there are no rational grounds for wanting to perpetuate the existence of the human race — or of oneself, for that matter. There is little doubt in my mind that it is far more rational to want a second helping of ice-cream than to want to go on living or — and this is more important for major economic issues — to want the human race to survive as long as possible. The relatively rational choices, such as whether or not to buy another ice-cream, are, of course, at the core of economic analysis, which has sometimes been defined as the logic of choice. The irrational choices, notably the decision that most people make to cling on to life, or the view that most people take to the effect that the prolongation of the human race’s existence is desirable, presumably cannot be brought within the framework of any rational choice and hence have to be largely ignored in the analysis of any economic issues on which, in fact, such choices may have a major bearing. Yet what is the point of, for example, working out, say, the rationally optimal rate of resource depletion, if all such exercises in particular applications of rational choice depend on the implicit assumption that the preservation of human life is worthwhile and if this assumption is completely irrational?