I would have to ask, if we tie together Effective Altruism and rationality, why Effective Altruists are not socialists of some sort.
I’m a loyal tovarisch of Soviet Canuckistan, and I have to say that doesn’t seem like a conundrum to me: there’s no direct contradiction between basing one’s charitable giving on evidence about charitable organizations’ effectivenesses and thinking that markets in which individual are free to act will lead to more preferable outcomes than markets with state-run monopolies/monopsonies.
The whole point of the second quotation and the paragraph after that was to… Oh never mind, should I just assume henceforth that contrary to its usage in socialist discourse, to outsiders “socialism” always means state-owned monopoly? In that case, what sort of terminology should I use for actual worker control of the means of production, and such things?
“Anarcho-syndicalism” maybe? All’s I know is that my socialized health insurance is a state-run oligopsony/monopoly (and so is my province’s liquor control board). In any event, if direct redistribution of wealth is the key identifier of socialism, then Milton Friedman was a socialist, given his support for negative income taxes.
Prolly the best thing would be to avoid jargon as much as possible when talking to outsiders and just state what concrete policy you’re talking about. For what it’s worth, it seems to me that you’ve used the term “socialism” to refer to two different, conflated, specific policies. In the OP you seem to be talking about direct redistribution of money, which isn’t necessarily equivalent to the notion of worker control of the means of production that you introduce in the parent; and the term “socialism” doesn’t pick out either specific policy in my mind. (An example of how redistribution and worker ownership are not equivalent: on Paul Krugman’s account, if you did direct redistribution right now, you’d increase aggregate demand but not even out ownership of capital. This is because current household consumption seems to be budget-constrained in the face of the ongoing “secular stagnation”—if you gave poor people a whack of cash or assets right now, they’d (liquidate and) spend it on things they need rather than investing/holding it. )
For what it’s worth, it seems to me that you’ve used the term “socialism” to refer to two different, conflated, specific policies. In the OP you seem to be talking about direct redistribution of money, which isn’t necessarily equivalent to the notion of worker control of the means of production that you introduce in the parent; and the term “socialism” doesn’t pick out either specific policy in my mind.
Ah, here’s the confusion. No, in the OP I was talking about worker control of the means of production, and criticizing Effective Altruism for attempting to fix poverty and sickness through what I consider an insufficiently effective intervention, that being direct redistribution of money.
How would you respond to (what I claim to be) Krugman’s account, i.e., in current conditions poor households are budget-constrained and would, if free to do so, liquidate their ownership of the means of production for money to buy the things they need immediately? Just how much redistribution of ownership are you imagining here?
Basically, I accept that critique, but only at an engineering level. Ditto on the “how much” issue: it’s engineering. Neither of these issues actually makes me believe that a welfare state strapped awkwardly on top of a fundamentally industrial-capitalist, resource-capitalist, or financial-capitalist system—and constantly under attack by anyone perceiving themselves as a put-upon well-heeled taxpayer to boot—is actually a better solution to poverty and inequality than a more thoroughly socialist system in which such inequalities and such poverty just don’t happen in the first place (because they’re not part of the system’s utility function).
I certainly believe that we have not yet designed or located a perfect socialist system to implement. What I do note, as addendum to that, is that nobody who supports capitalism believes the status quo is a perfect capitalism, and most people who aren’t fanatical ideologues don’t even believe we’ve found a perfect capitalism yet. The lack of a preexisting design X and a proof that X Is Perfect do not preclude the existence of a better system, whether redesigned from scratch or found by hill-climbing on piecemeal reforms.
All that lack means is that we have to actually think and actually try—which we should have been doing anyway, if we wish to act according to our profession to be rational.
I’m a loyal tovarisch of Soviet Canuckistan, and I have to say that doesn’t seem like a conundrum to me: there’s no direct contradiction between basing one’s charitable giving on evidence about charitable organizations’ effectivenesses and thinking that markets in which individual are free to act will lead to more preferable outcomes than markets with state-run monopolies/monopsonies.
The whole point of the second quotation and the paragraph after that was to… Oh never mind, should I just assume henceforth that contrary to its usage in socialist discourse, to outsiders “socialism” always means state-owned monopoly? In that case, what sort of terminology should I use for actual worker control of the means of production, and such things?
“Anarcho-syndicalism” maybe? All’s I know is that my socialized health insurance is a state-run oligopsony/monopoly (and so is my province’s liquor control board). In any event, if direct redistribution of wealth is the key identifier of socialism, then Milton Friedman was a socialist, given his support for negative income taxes.
Prolly the best thing would be to avoid jargon as much as possible when talking to outsiders and just state what concrete policy you’re talking about. For what it’s worth, it seems to me that you’ve used the term “socialism” to refer to two different, conflated, specific policies. In the OP you seem to be talking about direct redistribution of money, which isn’t necessarily equivalent to the notion of worker control of the means of production that you introduce in the parent; and the term “socialism” doesn’t pick out either specific policy in my mind. (An example of how redistribution and worker ownership are not equivalent: on Paul Krugman’s account, if you did direct redistribution right now, you’d increase aggregate demand but not even out ownership of capital. This is because current household consumption seems to be budget-constrained in the face of the ongoing “secular stagnation”—if you gave poor people a whack of cash or assets right now, they’d (liquidate and) spend it on things they need rather than investing/holding it. )
Ah, here’s the confusion. No, in the OP I was talking about worker control of the means of production, and criticizing Effective Altruism for attempting to fix poverty and sickness through what I consider an insufficiently effective intervention, that being direct redistribution of money.
Oh, I see. Excellent clarification.
How would you respond to (what I claim to be) Krugman’s account, i.e., in current conditions poor households are budget-constrained and would, if free to do so, liquidate their ownership of the means of production for money to buy the things they need immediately? Just how much redistribution of ownership are you imagining here?
Basically, I accept that critique, but only at an engineering level. Ditto on the “how much” issue: it’s engineering. Neither of these issues actually makes me believe that a welfare state strapped awkwardly on top of a fundamentally industrial-capitalist, resource-capitalist, or financial-capitalist system—and constantly under attack by anyone perceiving themselves as a put-upon well-heeled taxpayer to boot—is actually a better solution to poverty and inequality than a more thoroughly socialist system in which such inequalities and such poverty just don’t happen in the first place (because they’re not part of the system’s utility function).
I certainly believe that we have not yet designed or located a perfect socialist system to implement. What I do note, as addendum to that, is that nobody who supports capitalism believes the status quo is a perfect capitalism, and most people who aren’t fanatical ideologues don’t even believe we’ve found a perfect capitalism yet. The lack of a preexisting design X and a proof that X Is Perfect do not preclude the existence of a better system, whether redesigned from scratch or found by hill-climbing on piecemeal reforms.
All that lack means is that we have to actually think and actually try—which we should have been doing anyway, if we wish to act according to our profession to be rational.
Good answer. (Before this comment thread I was, and I continue to be, fairly sympathetic to these efforts.)
Thanks!