I don’t see the reason for this defeatism—not on housing where YIMBY is actively winning some battles and gaining strength, not on aging where there might not be as much research as we’d like but there’s definitely research and it will improve over time. As for balancing the budget, we did it as recently as the 1990s and also it’s not obvious why we need to care about that.
So basically on your (1) I’d say yes we agree there are upsides I don’t see how that leads to enough to justify the risks, and (2) I disagree strongly with the premise but even if you are right we would still be dead slightly slower, as your (3) suggests.
If your opinion is, roughly, ‘I don’t care if humans continue to exist once I am dead’ then that would be a crux, yes. If I didn’t care about humans existing after my death, I would roll the dice too.
I don’t see the reason for this defeatism—not on housing where YIMBY is actively winning some battles and gaining strength, not on aging where there might not be as much research as we’d like but there’s definitely research and it will improve over time. As for balancing the budget, we did it as recently as the 1990s and also it’s not obvious why we need to care about that.
So basically on your (1) I’d say yes we agree there are upsides I don’t see how that leads to enough to justify the risks, and (2) I disagree strongly with the premise but even if you are right we would still be dead slightly slower, as your (3) suggests.
If your opinion is, roughly, ‘I don’t care if humans continue to exist once I am dead’ then that would be a crux, yes. If I didn’t care about humans existing after my death, I would roll the dice too.