I think a lot of the focus on trolley problems is they’re sort of a platonic model of making hard decisions about tradeoffs, with the idea being that if you can convince people it’s right to make tradeoffs in the most obvious situation, they should consider the tradeoffs in much more complicated policy decisions also. EG people who propose Basic Income want people to be willing to trade “some of your money” for “greater happiness for many people”. This is also what a lot of Effective Altruism movement is based on, making GOOD tradeoffs rather than bad ones.
I think a lot of the focus on trolley problems is they’re sort of a platonic model of making hard decisions about tradeoffs, with the idea being that if you can convince people it’s right to make tradeoffs in the most obvious situation, they should consider the tradeoffs in much more complicated policy decisions also. EG people who propose Basic Income want people to be willing to trade “some of your money” for “greater happiness for many people”. This is also what a lot of Effective Altruism movement is based on, making GOOD tradeoffs rather than bad ones.