War policy decision-makers risk soldiers’ lives while bearing none of the costs themselves.

Evidence

“But to keep people out there that long for reasons that make no sense to anybody else except to your inner circle, it just doesn’t sit right with me. None of these people making decisions have anybody there. They’re playing with house money. They’re playing with the youth of this country. They’re not playing with their families. They’re playing with other people’s families. And you can’t do that. You have to respect these people, first off. Give them back their children. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 290

Categorization

• APHORISMS: ‘Playing with other people’s families’ captures a durable moral intuition about the asymmetry between decision-makers and those who bear the costs of their choices.