Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

by Steven Pinker

Putting a dollar value on a human life is repugnant, but it’s also unavoidable, because otherwise policymakers can spend profligate amounts on sentimental causes or pork-barrel projects that leave worse hazards untreated.

Which is more likely—that the laws of the universe as we understand them are false, or that some guy got something wrong?

Whether a choice driven by these emotions is “rational” depends on whether you think that emotions are natural responses we should respect, like eating and staying warm, or evolutionary nuisances our rational powers should override.

Poverty needs no explanation; it is the natural state of humankind. What needs an explanation is wealth.