While some may dismiss the possibility of the electorate becoming more rational in its political decision-making, the idea that citizens are inherently irrational is a myth.
Your counterargument in no way engages with the most important parts of, say, Bryan Caplan’s argument for voter irrationality, which is that on the margin voters gain nothing by voting well and pay nothing for voting according to their emotions, whereas voting well requires costly investments of time and attention.
It’s possible that people could, by investing more energy and time into the voting process, vote better. But why would we believe that’s the right thing for people to do, on an individual level?
Yup, agreed that it may well be not worthwhile for voters who vote for reasons that are not oriented toward the most social good to vote rationally. This is why I say this is a project informed by EA values—it comes from the perspective that voting is like donating thousands of dollars to charity. For those who are purely self-interested, it’s really not rational to vote.
So to be clear, it’s not meant to target those who don’t care about the public good—just those mistaken about what is the best way to achieve the public good. For instance, plenty of voters are mistaken about the state of reality, and some of those folks would genuinely want the most good. The project is not meant to reach all, in other words—just that select slice.
Your counterargument in no way engages with the most important parts of, say, Bryan Caplan’s argument for voter irrationality, which is that on the margin voters gain nothing by voting well and pay nothing for voting according to their emotions, whereas voting well requires costly investments of time and attention.
It’s possible that people could, by investing more energy and time into the voting process, vote better. But why would we believe that’s the right thing for people to do, on an individual level?
Yup, agreed that it may well be not worthwhile for voters who vote for reasons that are not oriented toward the most social good to vote rationally. This is why I say this is a project informed by EA values—it comes from the perspective that voting is like donating thousands of dollars to charity. For those who are purely self-interested, it’s really not rational to vote.
So to be clear, it’s not meant to target those who don’t care about the public good—just those mistaken about what is the best way to achieve the public good. For instance, plenty of voters are mistaken about the state of reality, and some of those folks would genuinely want the most good. The project is not meant to reach all, in other words—just that select slice.
I don’t even think most voters behave irrationality on many subjects.
They tend to form “blocks” or “tribes”, and from the point of view of the tribe, their voting can be seen as rational.
Of course I definitely think the world could be run a lot better, so some of what Caplan says is true.
But this is all still a problem for Gleb, because doing what’s best for your tribe is not necessarily being a rational truthseeker.