Economics is not a value in and of itself. It is only a way of weighing one value against another. Economics does not say that you should make the most money possible. Anyone with knowledge of firearms could probably make more money working as a hit man for organized crime. But economics does not urge you toward such choices. What lofty talk about “non-economic values” usually boils down to is that some people do not want their particular values weighed against anything. If they are for saving Mono Lake or preserving some historic building, then they do not want that weighed against the cost – which is to say, ultimately, against all the other things that might be done instead with the same resources. For instance, how many Third World children could be vaccinated against fatal diseases with the money that is spent saving Mono Lake or preserving a historic building? We should vaccinate those children and save Mono Lake and preserve the historic building—as well as doing innumerable ot...