This is talking about the underlying preferences, not the surface level preferences. It’s an abstract moral system where we try to optimize people’s utility function, not a concrete political one where we ask people what they want.
I got that; I just don’t think most people have identifiable meta-preferences. I don’t. I expect less than half of Americans would quickly understand the concept of “meta-preferences”, and I’m pretty sure that God features prominently in the moral reasoning of most Americans (but perhaps not most Californians).
OTOH, I’m sure that many people have identifiable preferences and that some people are smart enough to work backwards. Somebody’s going to figure out which meta-preference leads to a lower tax rate and tell Fox News.
Voting relies on human judgement, which gets increasingly shaky the farther it gets from the humans’ concrete concerns. I think your approach magnifies the problems of democracy rather than solving them.
This is talking about the underlying preferences, not the surface level preferences. It’s an abstract moral system where we try to optimize people’s utility function, not a concrete political one where we ask people what they want.
I got that; I just don’t think most people have identifiable meta-preferences. I don’t. I expect less than half of Americans would quickly understand the concept of “meta-preferences”, and I’m pretty sure that God features prominently in the moral reasoning of most Americans (but perhaps not most Californians).
OTOH, I’m sure that many people have identifiable preferences and that some people are smart enough to work backwards. Somebody’s going to figure out which meta-preference leads to a lower tax rate and tell Fox News.
Voting relies on human judgement, which gets increasingly shaky the farther it gets from the humans’ concrete concerns. I think your approach magnifies the problems of democracy rather than solving them.