You’d figure that smarter people have more money to spend on content than dumber people do… yet, for some reason there’s a shortage of smarter content.
Dropping the economists for a moment and turning to a writer: “Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests”.
More mundanely, smarter people are probably better at pirating what they like than dumb people, too.
Your reply failed in all types of ways. Let’s wipe the board clean.
You don’t describe any of the ways my reply “failed”, so that appears to be an evasion.
Which non-profit system would create the most value?
Not sure. I’d need more information.
The current system presumably gives less money to non-profits than your two alternatives. But maybe under your system 2 the extra money would go to existing ineffective charities and not improve on the status quo. That seems unlikely to be a big enough effect to outweigh the benefit of more non-profit revenue, though. But then again, maybe under system 2 and/or system 3 people would start setting up spurious non-profits to enrich themselves, and how much of a problem that’d be would depend on the precise regulation imposed on non-profits in your counterfactual systems. You don’t specify.
Which website system would create the most value?
Probably the current thumbs up/down system. Options 3 & 4 involve involuntary contributions, and the effect of that driving people away from Less Wrong would probably swamp any benefit from the contributions. Under option 2 the vast majority of users wouldn’t bother to use the system, and I wouldn’t expect the minority who did use it to be representative of LW, so option 2 would likely lead to a distorted representation of how much the overall userbase liked posts. And then there’s the risk that introducing monetary payments adds more incentives for people to post crowd-pleasing stuff instead of the stuff I’d say adds value! (And don’t we already have technologies for throwing money at people who write stuff one likes on the Internet? Does option 2 bring much new to the table?)
Please explain your answers.
Done. But your questions don’t clearly address the specific points I made before, and arguing with people who don’t address the specific points I’m making is unproductive. Don’t expect me to answer any more tangential essay questions.
If you zig some times… and zag other times… and you’re failing to explain your zig vs zag rules… then perhaps if you answer enough essay questions we’ll be able to elucidate/illuminate whether your rules are so good or no good (incoherent).
My rule is simple. Consumer choice is always better than representative choice. Your rule isn’t so simple. Some times you believe that consumer choice is better… and other times you don’t.
Your rule isn’t so simple. Some times you believe that consumer choice is better… and other times you don’t.
My sole defence is that reality is complicated. I do think it’s a pretty good defence; it also explains why sometimes when I get sick I think it’s better to take antibiotics than not to, and other times I don’t. For example.
perhaps if you answer enough essay questions we’ll be able to elucidate/illuminate whether your rules are so good or no good (incoherent)
Hmm, something that would take no small amount of time, and have a dubious & uncertain benefit. Unpromising. And I reckon I’ve made my original point adequately, so I’m going to call this a wrap.
This claims that movies, books, etc. can’t have different prices like cars do because higher-priced movies could be cheaply pirated.
The world did exist before the Internet became popular. Your explanation may explain why we don’t have the movie equivalent of million dollar cars today, but it fails at explaining this back in the day when it was impossible to pirate a movie reasonably.
First, it’s important to note that my “failure” doesn’t change the fact that linvoids aren’t rivalrous). In other words, my “failure” has absolutely no bearing on the validity of my verdict.
Second, markets don’t mean that every Easter Egg (EE) will be spotted. With markets you have a lot more people participating in the search process so it increases the chances that an EE will be found. Plus, finders reap the rewards of finding EEs… so there’s more incentive to find them. My point is that just because nobody has spotted an EE doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
Thirdly, it’s not necessarily clear how back in the day a movie producer would have been able to charge more for a superior product. Perhaps in a big city like Los Angeles you could have filled a theater with people willing to pay $1500 for the opportunity to see a smarter movie? Right now people are willing to pay around $5000 for the opportunity to attend TED talks. There’s no reason that the contents of TED talks can’t be served in a movie format.
Fourthly, if we did shift linvoids over to the public sector and give taxpayers the freedom to choose where their taxes go… taxes wouldn’t be paying for the opportunity to consume the linvoid… they would be paying for the production of the linvoid.
With the current system, we buy a movie if it’s worth it to do so. It’s binary.… yes or no. A DVD either is, or it isn’t, worth $15. In reality though… there’s a continuum of valuations that range from $0.00 all the way to thousands of dollars. A pricing system only captures the tip of the tip of this iceberg. A pragmatarian system would capture the entire iceberg. If a movie is only worth $1 to you… then that’s how much you could allocate to it. If its worth $1000 to me… then that’s how much I’d allocate to it. As a result, the supply would far more accurately reflect demand.
Dropping the economists for a moment and turning to a writer: “Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests”.
More mundanely, smarter people are probably better at pirating what they like than dumb people, too.
You don’t describe any of the ways my reply “failed”, so that appears to be an evasion.
Not sure. I’d need more information.
The current system presumably gives less money to non-profits than your two alternatives. But maybe under your system 2 the extra money would go to existing ineffective charities and not improve on the status quo. That seems unlikely to be a big enough effect to outweigh the benefit of more non-profit revenue, though. But then again, maybe under system 2 and/or system 3 people would start setting up spurious non-profits to enrich themselves, and how much of a problem that’d be would depend on the precise regulation imposed on non-profits in your counterfactual systems. You don’t specify.
Probably the current thumbs up/down system. Options 3 & 4 involve involuntary contributions, and the effect of that driving people away from Less Wrong would probably swamp any benefit from the contributions. Under option 2 the vast majority of users wouldn’t bother to use the system, and I wouldn’t expect the minority who did use it to be representative of LW, so option 2 would likely lead to a distorted representation of how much the overall userbase liked posts. And then there’s the risk that introducing monetary payments adds more incentives for people to post crowd-pleasing stuff instead of the stuff I’d say adds value! (And don’t we already have technologies for throwing money at people who write stuff one likes on the Internet? Does option 2 bring much new to the table?)
Done. But your questions don’t clearly address the specific points I made before, and arguing with people who don’t address the specific points I’m making is unproductive. Don’t expect me to answer any more tangential essay questions.
If you zig some times… and zag other times… and you’re failing to explain your zig vs zag rules… then perhaps if you answer enough essay questions we’ll be able to elucidate/illuminate whether your rules are so good or no good (incoherent).
The Satt
Satt’s Paradox
My rule is simple. Consumer choice is always better than representative choice. Your rule isn’t so simple. Some times you believe that consumer choice is better… and other times you don’t.
My sole defence is that reality is complicated. I do think it’s a pretty good defence; it also explains why sometimes when I get sick I think it’s better to take antibiotics than not to, and other times I don’t. For example.
Hmm, something that would take no small amount of time, and have a dubious & uncertain benefit. Unpromising. And I reckon I’ve made my original point adequately, so I’m going to call this a wrap.
This claims that movies, books, etc. can’t have different prices like cars do because higher-priced movies could be cheaply pirated.
The world did exist before the Internet became popular. Your explanation may explain why we don’t have the movie equivalent of million dollar cars today, but it fails at explaining this back in the day when it was impossible to pirate a movie reasonably.
First, it’s important to note that my “failure” doesn’t change the fact that linvoids aren’t rivalrous). In other words, my “failure” has absolutely no bearing on the validity of my verdict.
Second, markets don’t mean that every Easter Egg (EE) will be spotted. With markets you have a lot more people participating in the search process so it increases the chances that an EE will be found. Plus, finders reap the rewards of finding EEs… so there’s more incentive to find them. My point is that just because nobody has spotted an EE doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
Thirdly, it’s not necessarily clear how back in the day a movie producer would have been able to charge more for a superior product. Perhaps in a big city like Los Angeles you could have filled a theater with people willing to pay $1500 for the opportunity to see a smarter movie? Right now people are willing to pay around $5000 for the opportunity to attend TED talks. There’s no reason that the contents of TED talks can’t be served in a movie format.
Fourthly, if we did shift linvoids over to the public sector and give taxpayers the freedom to choose where their taxes go… taxes wouldn’t be paying for the opportunity to consume the linvoid… they would be paying for the production of the linvoid.
With the current system, we buy a movie if it’s worth it to do so. It’s binary.… yes or no. A DVD either is, or it isn’t, worth $15. In reality though… there’s a continuum of valuations that range from $0.00 all the way to thousands of dollars. A pricing system only captures the tip of the tip of this iceberg. A pragmatarian system would capture the entire iceberg. If a movie is only worth $1 to you… then that’s how much you could allocate to it. If its worth $1000 to me… then that’s how much I’d allocate to it. As a result, the supply would far more accurately reflect demand.