The follow-up post has a public-choice-esque model of what’s going on that I think is plausible:
I started this series impressed by the obvious political and free speech ramifications. There is a much simpler economic explanation however. As the quotes from the UC system make clear, the central requirement of the diversity statements is to document past active participation in, and require future approval and participation in all the programs produced by the diversity staff...
Some quotes from the UC post, what gets you a good score
Participation in workshops and activities that help build multicultural competencies and create inclusive climates....Supporting student organizations that serve underrepresented groups....Participation with professional or scientific associations or meetings that aim to increase diversity or address the needs of underrepresented students, staff, or faculty. Serving on university or college committees related to equity and inclusion… Clear and detailed ideas for what existing programs they would get involved with
Universities have created a huge diversity equity and inclusion staff. The faculty regard this sort of thing with something in between horror and annoyance. Even super left wing faculty, especially in the sciences, want to hire good people and get back to work without too many diversity activities. They’ll happily look hard and promote “diverse” candidates informally, but don’t waste their time.
The diversity staff have a problem. By forcing these statements, and the staff ability to grade them before anyone gets a job, and to follow up when you ask for a raise or promotion, they create a great device to coerce participation in and support of their programs, their ever increasing staff, their budgets, their jobs. Disagree and you’re branded a racist!
I started this series impressed by the obvious political and free speech ramifications. There is a much simpler economic explanation however.
I’m confused by the “however” here. It shouldn’t be surprising that political phenomena often have economic explanations. (That’s what public choice theory is all about, right?) Why would having such an explanation make one less “impressed by the obvious political and free speech ramifications”?
Why would having such an explanation make one less “impressed by the obvious political and free speech ramifications”?
I wouldn’t read too much into the “forever”. Later in the post:
I like economic explanations for behavior. You don’t need politics or morality, just good old self-interest. That’s why I became an economist. At least they are acting “as if” this is the motivation, which for explaining behavior is all that matters. That doesn’t make the actions any less coercive, nor the grab of power over academic appointments any less revolutionary. [emphasis DanielFilan’s]
So the author is equating “economics” with “behavior driven by self-interest” but that seems like too narrow a view of economics to me, since many ideas from “traditional” economics can be useful for analyzing genuinely moral/altruistic behavior as well. (E.g., moral trade, moral public goods, etc.)
Aside from that, only the most proximate cause of the situation can be explained purely by self-interest, because why were the diversity staff hired in the first place and given so much power? A significant faction of the coalition (contra “don’t need politics”) that supported that must have done so out of real moral concern. (I think this fact should be explicitly stated, or at least not negated, so that they and we can learn from the consequences of their decisions. Otherwise I fear that the lesson will be “self-interest is the bad guy here, I’m acting out of real moral concern so I don’t have to worry about causing this kind of problem.”)
(Sorry if I’m being too pedantic here and going off on a tangent...)
Looks like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Robin Hanson are starting to get alarmed about this. Eliezer just retweeted this tweet by Robin:
(I don’t think I’ve seen either of them express something like this before.)
The follow-up post has a public-choice-esque model of what’s going on that I think is plausible:
I’m confused by the “however” here. It shouldn’t be surprising that political phenomena often have economic explanations. (That’s what public choice theory is all about, right?) Why would having such an explanation make one less “impressed by the obvious political and free speech ramifications”?
I wouldn’t read too much into the “forever”. Later in the post:
So the author is equating “economics” with “behavior driven by self-interest” but that seems like too narrow a view of economics to me, since many ideas from “traditional” economics can be useful for analyzing genuinely moral/altruistic behavior as well. (E.g., moral trade, moral public goods, etc.)
Aside from that, only the most proximate cause of the situation can be explained purely by self-interest, because why were the diversity staff hired in the first place and given so much power? A significant faction of the coalition (contra “don’t need politics”) that supported that must have done so out of real moral concern. (I think this fact should be explicitly stated, or at least not negated, so that they and we can learn from the consequences of their decisions. Otherwise I fear that the lesson will be “self-interest is the bad guy here, I’m acting out of real moral concern so I don’t have to worry about causing this kind of problem.”)
(Sorry if I’m being too pedantic here and going off on a tangent...)