---
title: "The Exchange Rate Problem"
number: 2
statement: "Can outcomes in different causes (a life saved, a species protected, a law changed, a child educated) be compared on a common scale, and where must comparison stop?"
progress: "A comparison method that people holding different moral frameworks accept as fair for at least some pairs of causes, with the pairs it can’t compare stated openly."
conditions: ["single-lens"]
status: open
bounty: "Unfunded. The Question Bounties program will attach prizes once it is funded."
---

## Why it matters

Every choice between two causes is an exchange rate, whether or not anyone writes it down. Writing it down lets people argue about it.

## Where to start

Health economics already compares treatments with quality- and disability-adjusted life years. Wellbeing research proposes life-satisfaction measures. Each scale carries a moral framework inside it. The work is to map which scales each framework accepts and where every scale breaks down. Charitology’s [frameworks data](/tools/public-api/) is a place to begin.