Blorp

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac I also think phil of mind is very interesting yet its interjection here is not. This was my initial point, that you’re taking us on a tangent that is its own subject and not the subject at hand.

I get the point. I am here just talk about philosophy of mind because I find it interesting. As tempting as it is to think that we are some “seat of consciousness” that can be freely transferred to others, this is exactly what I’m rejecting. A lot of people (I think you as well, but you are free to correct me) are basically postulating some Cartesian Theater in which there is some inner “you” who gets to take in all the experiences of yourself, and we could just transfer this to another being. That is what I’m arguing against. To be clear, people should still be grateful for their opportunities and wealth they get through no work of their own nonetheless. Unlike some other people in this thread, I don’t think this has much to do with political theory or ethical theory. Like I think it’s wrong to say that “King Louis XVI could have just as easily been a peasant” because his parents and identity itself are what made him king. But still, that doesn’t mean he “deserves” to rule over everyone! Anyway, take a look at Cartesian Theater en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian…

“What if you were born in Sudan” “But I was born in America” “I know, it’s a hypothetical, how would you feel if you were born in Sudan” “But that’s impossible, I was born in America”

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac “You” could be experiencing a [less] fortunate consciousness or vice versa through no force or will of your own but the pure external mechanics of the universe.” The purpose is to evoke humility more than empathy I believe

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac It’s because you’re also taking that phrase too literally as well! The purpose is to highlight how much chance outside of your control there is in shaping your life. You can rephrase it as “Instead of experiencing a [more] fortunate consciousness…

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac If you can imagine being a lot less fortunate, you’ve achieved the objective of this question and your follow on is still very much the tangent. If you’re ok with “imagine you were not in the top decile of human welfare and were instead in the bottom decile” then that’s fine too

Right, but I can clearly imagine myself as not being as fortunate, or suffering a debilitating injury in childhood or something like that. The question is whether it’s conceivable, literally able to be conceived, that I could be a person with completely different parents, different genetics, different culture, different personality etc etc I think any such change is 1.) necessary to really say what it would be mean to be born a Sudanese tribesman, and 2.) destructive to my identity I think it’s easier when you focus on another person. What would it mean, say, for Abraham Lincoln to be born as Adolf Hitler? Is this really a coherent idea? To me, if “Abe” was born as Hitler, he would have his brain, genetics, culture, upbringing and then just be Hitler. There would be no Abe at all. Kripke goes through this in Naming and Necessity

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac It’s like another embedded hypothetical to which you’re saying “but I can’t assume that!!” just as some folks are saying “but I’m not Sudanese!” You’re one layer up in abstraction.

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac Just as you can imagine two different Boeing 737s going to different places at different times by assuming some core shares anatomy for the plane. So let’s reframe the entire question as: “Assuming there was some core immutable part of you, imagine…”

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac I don’t think you’re wrong but to go with your Boeing analogy on the other thread. Asking you to imagine being someone else is much closer to asking “imagine if this Boeing 737 going to Atlanta was a different Boeing 737 going to Paris.” Same anatomy, different geo and vector

@TimTrytitle @The_Sublimatory @TrueSlazac I think this is a very pedantic interpretation of the phrase “imagine if you were…” and it’s one that just leads us all to a dead end without really offering much in the way of new insight.

@a_climacus @_ianwatts_ @gruevy How do you compare labor hours for one profession vs another? Eg if an NBA player takes as many avg hours to produce as a neurosurgeon are they of equal value in LTV? I never really understood this

@_ianwatts_ @gruevy That is something that would follow from what he's saying, not what he's saying. Hes saying that value is the amount of labor it takes to create a useful product

An editor on Facebook once complained that she was sent a 1,000,000 word novel. I replied "If the labor theory of value was real, you'd publish it and he'd make a pile of money" and a lot of communist authors got really mad at me

@jimthegiant More wealth is always better than less wealth. That there are frictions in our distribution of this wealth should ofc be addressed. But many of those are intentional frictions (housing) and not market failures

Genuine question, how do people STILL believe this shit? The world has more wealth than ever, Elon is almost a trillionaire. We have more billionaires than ever. How much MORE wealth do we need before normal people can afford the basics?

@CharlesCMann @actsmaniac Good shout!

@Bl0rp @actsmaniac Libraries are your friend! search.worldcat.org/title/56518547

the neoliberal mindset is more that we already live like royalty and don't appreciate it enough, and should appreciate and recognize the systems that make it possible

@FeepingCreature @NathanpmYoung Nah I don’t think so, income tax is much more diversified and historically less swingy than house prices are. Being correlated with the entire economy intros way less volatility than one sector

@Bl0rp @NathanpmYoung I mean, government revenue is already tied to the market, no? Doesn't income taxation have the same problem?

@FeepingCreature @NathanpmYoung This idea I’m less sold on. Beyond the power conc, I don’t think tying gov revenue to the housing market is a good idea. A market crash is precisely the time we need stable fiscal revenue

@NathanpmYoung How does it make a profit on them? If you have shares in the entire country, there's a massive trade opportunity for buying them from the government. This also gets you accurate valuation. It's basically fractional Harberger taxes, sidestepping the biggest problem.

@FeepingCreature @NathanpmYoung Yes I’ve thought about this approach a lot. In the end I decided it was probably far too cumbersome for the state to pull off and was misaligned with my slightly more libertarian ideals

@NathanpmYoung I do like a wealth tax! Shares in companies are actually reasonably easy to tax if you just fundamentally allow payment-in-shares. That is, a 0.5% wealth tax would just take 0.5% of your actual shares, then presumably sell them. It gets much more difficult for housing. 1/2

@tonyannett To call not internalizing an externality a subsidy is misleading wordplay. Quibbling about the word is silly but you intentionally chose one that could be misinterpreted. We don’t need economists ragebaiting around here too.

Economically it’s considered a subsidy because it doesn’t capture the social cost.

@RichardHanania I wager that most people simply don’t know how to play these tacit power games and so opt out of them all together.

@RichardHanania As power disparities become less visible (I’d argue they never really go away, just get shoved behind the sofa) i think we start to play tacit power games rather than overt ones. The further back power disparities go, the more tacit the games have to be.

I've figured out what ties together all our sexual pathologies: pedo panic, age gay hysteria, MeToo, etc. We're trying to eliminate all power disparities. I call this the lesbianization of heterosexuality. No wonder birth rates have collapsed. richardhanania.com/p/stop-trying-…

@increase_la @cremieuxrecueil I dunno, really tall gates seem to be pretty effective without all the deadly laser theatrics

@cremieuxrecueil I'm watching Jewish lasers shoot down hezbollah rockets and wondering if something similar could be used on fare evaders?

I think it bears repeating that BART installed tall gates to enter the subway and they're gaining $10m in revenue a year plus the need for maintenance is down by *95.7%* Passengers who were unwilling to pay a few bucks were causing 96% of the public cleanliness problems!