because society is somewhat meritocratic and power therefore somewhat correlates with virtue.
I dispute this strongly. “Power correlates with virtue” is a very WEIRD opinion. The majority of humans, both historically and in the present time, live in places where power has little if any correlation with virtue.
So you’re asserting it isn’t a tradeoff because power has little correlation with virtue, so we can optimize for pure L policies because R doesn’t come up in practice?
I don’t “optimize for pure L” would be the takeaway from there being no correlation between power and virtue. Even if there is no correlation, you would still want good incentives at all levels, not just at the top.
I dispute this strongly. “Power correlates with virtue” is a very WEIRD opinion. The majority of humans, both historically and in the present time, live in places where power has little if any correlation with virtue.
I was thinking specifically in WEIRD cases.
I think it would be good to call that out specifically in the text.
So you’re asserting it isn’t a tradeoff because power has little correlation with virtue, so we can optimize for pure L policies because R doesn’t come up in practice?
I don’t “optimize for pure L” would be the takeaway from there being no correlation between power and virtue. Even if there is no correlation, you would still want good incentives at all levels, not just at the top.