Quite agree—depending on how you aggregate individual values and weigh the adversarial motives, it’s quite possible that “we” are often worse off with secrets. It’s not clear whether or when that’s the case from the “simple model” argument, though.
And certainly there are cases where unilateral revelations while others retain privacy are harmful. Anytime you’d like to play poker where your cards are face-up and mine are known only to me, let me know.
I would love to explore whether private information is similar to other capital, where overall welfare can be improved by redistribution, but only under certain assumptions of growth, aggregation and individual benefits canceling out others’ harms.
Quite agree—depending on how you aggregate individual values and weigh the adversarial motives, it’s quite possible that “we” are often worse off with secrets. It’s not clear whether or when that’s the case from the “simple model” argument, though.
And certainly there are cases where unilateral revelations while others retain privacy are harmful. Anytime you’d like to play poker where your cards are face-up and mine are known only to me, let me know.
I would love to explore whether private information is similar to other capital, where overall welfare can be improved by redistribution, but only under certain assumptions of growth, aggregation and individual benefits canceling out others’ harms.