Disqus - Latest Comments for metaandmeta

Re: The Argument for Preemptive Redistribution

metaandmeta — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:47:26 -0000

Will, how are you quantifying political capture for this argument? Are there widely accepted indices for this kind of thing? If so, is there really no correlation between inequality and capture?

Re: Grandly Nugatory? Hardly

metaandmeta — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:06:41 -0000

"sort of the left-wing equivalent of right-wing ravings about how liberals at bottom are moved by hate for the essential awesomeness of America and want to destroy it one abortion at time while taking away our guns so we can’t do anything about it."

Hayes "ravings" at least presuppose that those he casts as malefactors are driven by rational, comprehensible, self-regarding impulses (maximize personal wealth; protect financial interests). Whereas the right-wing analogue presupposes only that liberals are possessed by a haphazard assortment of hatreds and resentments. Both stories may be grossly false, of course; but given standard economic assumptions, at least, Hayes' is prima facie the far likelier.

Anyway, I could go on, but I have to go meet up with my weekly "Burn the American Flag!" discussion group now...

Re: J.R. Lucas on Equality and the Multidimensionality of Status

metaandmeta — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:13:28 -0000

There's something to this idea, and you've expressed the upside well.

But there's also a bit of a "Throw the proles a bone" to it, isn't there? It's a bit trivial, for example, to say that more people will be able to claim "status" if we multiply the dimensions along which they can claim it.

Moreover, and along related lines, it's far too easy to cast those who express skepticism about this ideas as merely "sniffing" at the things that "matter most to most people." Being the greatest Tiddlywinks player in the world may matter most to someone. But one has to wonder whether it's really too "elitist" to hope that someday that person might aim a little higher. If not, then we'd have to concede that some dimensions of status just aren't that meaningful. And so we're left mostly back where we started, with problematic inequality along normatively more salient dimensions. Or?

Re: On the Willingness of Past Selves to Let You Buy Them a Beer

metaandmeta — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:11:54 -0000

"the point of personal continuity is to solve assurance problems...."

Yap.