Like identical twins, Maureen and Jessica have many similarities 36 . Their faces and builds are the same, and they wear their short, dark hair in styles similar to each other. But physicality is where the similarities 37 . In terms of their academic interests and abilities, Maureen and Jessica are very different from one another. While Maureen likes math and science classes, Jessica excels at literature and arts classes. Instead of watching TV or wasting her spare time, Maureen likes to conduct scientific experiments or work on complicated math problems. Like her sister, Jessica also 38 busy during her spare time; 39 , she would much rather read novels, write poetry, or paint. Instead of presenting the twins with problems and conflicts, their differences seem to have brought them closer together. Many people wonder if the twins are always in 40 about their interests and ideas; on the contrary, they enjoy learning about each others' interests. Maureen and Jessica's relationship suggests that people's differences can bring them closer together instead of separating them.

Starbucks serves over 25 million customers a week in 15,000 stores in 44 countries around the world. 41 So how did a company currently worth $5 billion get started? 

Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice, as it was originally known, roasted its first coffee beans in 1971. This tiny coffee house in Seattle, named after a character in the novel Moby Dick, was the vision of three men—Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker—who cared passionately about fine coffee and tea. 42 A decade later, their fourth store in Seattle opened. 

Meanwhile, in New York, Howard Schultz, a businessman specializing in kitchen equipment, noticed that a small company in Seattle was ordering a large number of a special type of coffeemaker. 43 As soon as he saw the Starbucks store, he knew that he wanted to be a part of it. The three founding members weren't initially very eager, but a persistent Schultz was eventually hired to be the head of Starbucks marketing in 1982. 44 Within the next ten years, Schultz had already opened 150 new stores and had bought the company! There are now stores all over Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. 45

As the concept of human rights is based on fairness, the exposure of so many people in poor countries to hazardous industrial processes and toxic wastes violates their rights. This is the view of many experts. In 1994, a group of experts met in Geneva to compose a more general document: “Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment.” It proclaims, among other things, a universal human right to a “secure, healthy, ecologically sound environment.” 

But many economists give priority to economic growth because it leads to generally higher salaries and more spending power for average individuals. Market exchanges generally promote economic growth, except where public goods are concerned. In those cases, economists use cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to identify new rules of market exchange that maximize growth. 

We note problems with this approach. Economic growth does not improve human welfare if it merely reflects higher prices and longer working hours stemming from the increasing scarcity of essential items, such as land to grow crops. When governments use CBA, they give equal consideration to each dollar rather than to each person. This goes against the ideal of equal government concern for all citizens. Also, CBA discounts the lives of future generation, as if people living later have few human rights than those living now. 

CBAs put all variables in dollar terms so that optimal policies can be identified mathematically. Shadow prices are assigned to whatever is not traded in markets, including human lives. Economists estimate how much people value their lives in monetary terms from how much they spend on life insurance and medical care, as well as how much extra pay they demand for dangerous work. Also, when people are killed in accidents caused by negligence, jury awards suggest common estimates of a life’s monetary worth. The problem is that on such measures an average human life in a poor country is worth much less money than an American, European, or Japanese life. This denies an equal human right to life.