I may have misunderstood the thrust of your argument (beginning “if you’re going for equality, do note...”) but it looks to me as if at least part of what you’re saying is that much of the inequality we presently see is just and right and good, because what’s happening is that people are being rewarded in proportion to the value they create. (Which might be just and right and good (1) because that means people are getting what they deserve, and/or (2) because it’s a good thing for there to be strong incentives to create value.)
I agree that there’s a lot to be said for inequality proportional to created value. But if, as seems to me to be the case (and as I think TheAncientGeek was arguing, albeit somewhat trollishly), (a) people get rewarded not for actual value created but for value delivered to the people who pay them, and (b) these two can (and often do) diverge sharply—well, then, I think the argument becomes very much weaker: the existing inequality is less in accordance with actual good done, and less something that we want to incentivize more of.
Now, we should still expect some correlation between value to society and value to employers. And, indeed, society is capable of paying for value-to-society, and that that’s something governments can and should and sometimes do do. But if you look around at who gets paid most and who least, I have to say the correlation between value created and reward received seems to me … not that great.
I accordingly suggest giving this particular argument against trying to reduce inequality less weight than one might otherwise be inclined to give it. (Still some, for sure, and in particular this still seems like a decent argument against outright communism. But, e.g., Scandinavia seems to be doing well enough to suggest that having somewhat less inequality than eli_sennesh encounters in California might work just fine.)
Incidentally, if whoever downvoted my earlier comment (whether Lumifer or someone else) would like to explain why they found it worthy of downvoting rather than (only?) counterargument, I’d be interested and grateful.
much of the inequality we presently see is just and right and good, because what’s happening is that people are being rewarded in proportion to the value they create.
My position is weaker: I don’t make claims about what is “right and good”. It’s really an observation that different abilities of people to create value will “naturally” lead to inequality unless someone (like a government) takes explicit active measures to counteract this.
people get rewarded not for actual value created but for value delivered to the people who pay them
I don’t know what “actual value” is. I treat value as subjective—different people can and do assign different value to the same thing. For the same reason I find “value to society” a suspect concept.
whoever downvoted my earlier comment (whether Lumifer or someone else)
I generally don’t up- or down-vote comments in threads in which I participate. Specifically, I didn’t vote on any comments in this thread.
It’s really an observation that different abilities [...] will “naturally” lead to inequality
Then yes, I agree with that.
I treat value as subjective
Me too. What I wrote should be regarded as shorthand for something like this: “net value to society, which of course different people will assess in different ways; I have mine, Eli has his, Lumifer has his or hers, etc. I expect these different assessments to be similar enough that it isn’t worth filling this discussion with metaethical digressions about how different people have different values”. Perhaps there’s some way I could have put it that wouldn’t have given the impression I was talking about magical Objective Real Moral Value without filling the thread with metaethical digressions, but I didn’t happen to spot one :-).
For the same reason I find “value to society” a suspect concept.
I’m not sure I understand this. It looks to me as if the following two questions are basically independent: (1) Is there one true way of assessing value, that isn’t dependent on any particular valuer’s values? (2) Is there, for typical ways of assessing value, a meaningful way to aggregate costs and benefits to lots of different people into an overall “value to society”? I answer “almost certainly no” to #1 but “yes, at least roughly” to #2.
I generally don’t up- or down-vote comments in threads in which I participate.
I may have misunderstood the thrust of your argument (beginning “if you’re going for equality, do note...”) but it looks to me as if at least part of what you’re saying is that much of the inequality we presently see is just and right and good, because what’s happening is that people are being rewarded in proportion to the value they create. (Which might be just and right and good (1) because that means people are getting what they deserve, and/or (2) because it’s a good thing for there to be strong incentives to create value.)
I agree that there’s a lot to be said for inequality proportional to created value. But if, as seems to me to be the case (and as I think TheAncientGeek was arguing, albeit somewhat trollishly), (a) people get rewarded not for actual value created but for value delivered to the people who pay them, and (b) these two can (and often do) diverge sharply—well, then, I think the argument becomes very much weaker: the existing inequality is less in accordance with actual good done, and less something that we want to incentivize more of.
Now, we should still expect some correlation between value to society and value to employers. And, indeed, society is capable of paying for value-to-society, and that that’s something governments can and should and sometimes do do. But if you look around at who gets paid most and who least, I have to say the correlation between value created and reward received seems to me … not that great.
I accordingly suggest giving this particular argument against trying to reduce inequality less weight than one might otherwise be inclined to give it. (Still some, for sure, and in particular this still seems like a decent argument against outright communism. But, e.g., Scandinavia seems to be doing well enough to suggest that having somewhat less inequality than eli_sennesh encounters in California might work just fine.)
Incidentally, if whoever downvoted my earlier comment (whether Lumifer or someone else) would like to explain why they found it worthy of downvoting rather than (only?) counterargument, I’d be interested and grateful.
My position is weaker: I don’t make claims about what is “right and good”. It’s really an observation that different abilities of people to create value will “naturally” lead to inequality unless someone (like a government) takes explicit active measures to counteract this.
I don’t know what “actual value” is. I treat value as subjective—different people can and do assign different value to the same thing. For the same reason I find “value to society” a suspect concept.
I generally don’t up- or down-vote comments in threads in which I participate. Specifically, I didn’t vote on any comments in this thread.
Then yes, I agree with that.
Me too. What I wrote should be regarded as shorthand for something like this: “net value to society, which of course different people will assess in different ways; I have mine, Eli has his, Lumifer has his or hers, etc. I expect these different assessments to be similar enough that it isn’t worth filling this discussion with metaethical digressions about how different people have different values”. Perhaps there’s some way I could have put it that wouldn’t have given the impression I was talking about magical Objective Real Moral Value without filling the thread with metaethical digressions, but I didn’t happen to spot one :-).
I’m not sure I understand this. It looks to me as if the following two questions are basically independent: (1) Is there one true way of assessing value, that isn’t dependent on any particular valuer’s values? (2) Is there, for typical ways of assessing value, a meaningful way to aggregate costs and benefits to lots of different people into an overall “value to society”? I answer “almost certainly no” to #1 but “yes, at least roughly” to #2.
Useful to know. (Neither do I, FWIW.)