Does “let the market handle it” apply to every risk equally?
If not, what distinguishes risks to which it applies less? What do we do about those risks?
If it applies equally to all risks, then either it’s pointless to talk about risks because the market will handle them all the way we would like them to be handled, or it’s pointless to say that the market will handle them because that’s already implied and the fact that we still consider them risks means we’re not completely confident that the market will handle them the way we would like.
Does “let the market handle it” apply to every risk equally?
Of course not. Don’t erect silly strawmen.
...the fact that we still consider them risks
Don’t erect silly strawmen. The market provides no guarantees. There will be winners and losers. On occasions the market will be spectacularly wrong. So? If you have a provably-better alternative let’s use that. Do you happen to have one?
If you have a provably-better alternative let’s use that. Do you happen to have one?
No, I wish.
This is the the stage where I’m hoping to collaboratively identify what the relevant unknowns are and what bounds we can assign to them. The next stage is to brainstorm what solutions might work and see if they cluster into any particular regions of the solution space. Also, to break them up by scale—individual, local, national, global. Come up with recommendations for actions one can take immediately to implement the first two (i.e. how to make the place where you live more likely to be a beacon of civilization). If we have some really smart/entrepreneurial LessWronger get interested, possibly come up with individual/local actions that scale to have national/global impact if they catch on with enough people.
This is a big problem and I’m not under the illusion that it’s going to be solved by this post. But we have to start somewhere. And if the best problem-solvers are ignoring this problem because the moral scolds and luddites have pissed all over it, maybe changing that state of affairs is a good place to start.
Does “let the market handle it” apply to every risk equally?
If not, what distinguishes risks to which it applies less? What do we do about those risks?
If it applies equally to all risks, then either it’s pointless to talk about risks because the market will handle them all the way we would like them to be handled, or it’s pointless to say that the market will handle them because that’s already implied and the fact that we still consider them risks means we’re not completely confident that the market will handle them the way we would like.
Of course not. Don’t erect silly strawmen.
Don’t erect silly strawmen. The market provides no guarantees. There will be winners and losers. On occasions the market will be spectacularly wrong. So? If you have a provably-better alternative let’s use that. Do you happen to have one?
No, I wish.
This is the the stage where I’m hoping to collaboratively identify what the relevant unknowns are and what bounds we can assign to them. The next stage is to brainstorm what solutions might work and see if they cluster into any particular regions of the solution space. Also, to break them up by scale—individual, local, national, global. Come up with recommendations for actions one can take immediately to implement the first two (i.e. how to make the place where you live more likely to be a beacon of civilization). If we have some really smart/entrepreneurial LessWronger get interested, possibly come up with individual/local actions that scale to have national/global impact if they catch on with enough people.
This is a big problem and I’m not under the illusion that it’s going to be solved by this post. But we have to start somewhere. And if the best problem-solvers are ignoring this problem because the moral scolds and luddites have pissed all over it, maybe changing that state of affairs is a good place to start.