Disqus - Latest Comments for Bob McGrew

Re: More on Hayek/Rawls Fusionism

Bob McGrew — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:52:55 -0000

I used to write for a conservative newspaper with Alec Rawls, John Rawls's son. He always insisted (as I recall) that his father was not nearly so left-wing as we all thought - that his contractarianism was a variety of classical liberalism rather than social democracy. And when I re-read the Theory of Justice, I could sort of see where he was coming from.

Re: Bad Theories that Track Robust Regularities

Bob McGrew — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 19:41:42 -0000

INTJ

Now possibly an ENTJ...

Re: Kiesling vs. Rosen on Egocasting; Dissertation Assignment Desk

Bob McGrew — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:57:49 -0000

Problem three is right in my area of research, but I can tell you it's way too hard: there aren't even any rigorous ways to talk about bounded rationality except in certain special cases, and I don't think that there will be short of an amazing advance in computer science. (Computer scientists are, after all, the ones who study the computational cost of problems.)

Problem two is very, very interesting, but out of my area of research. :)

Re: What Do You Deserve?

Bob McGrew — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 11:18:05 -0000

Hayek's argument here sounds very reminiscent of a Rawls-style veil of ignorance. Is that intentional? Anyone who's better at Hayek than I am want to comment?

It's worth mentioning that Hayek's phrasing of "selected at random" vs. Rawls prior-free approach has huge normative implications. In Rawls' case you get the maximin rule (if you like his logic), and in Hayek's case, you presumably get a straightforward utilitarianism.

Re: Arms Races, Happiness, and other Goods

Bob McGrew — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 18:52:42 -0000

Why does this argument suddenly seem less convincing when you substitute "widgets" for "poetry"?

Re: My Socks are Cold Feet Insurance!

Bob McGrew — Wed, 04 May 2005 13:20:47 -0000

These are some nice points, but it's still true that outliving one's retirement savings is a random variable which one can place bets on in order to hedge one's risk. (Which is another way of looking at insurance.)

You can view SS as a very strangely-structured form of insurance that deals with this risk. Of course, in this sense annuities are also a form of insurance.

Whether SS is insurance or not is mostly irrelevant to the points being made. As insurance, it doesn't make a lot of sense in its current form.

Re: “Reality-Based”

Bob McGrew — Tue, 17 May 2005 12:52:26 -0000

Thanks, Will. I've seen the quote, too, but I've been thinking the exact same thing.

Re: Literary Lacunae

Bob McGrew — Sun, 22 May 2005 12:55:04 -0000

Really, if you've never made it to Utopia, just skip to there. It's much more cohesive and interesting than State, IMHO.