Seems like there should be some externalities that overrule, yeah? Like, surely the kid’s preferences don’t end up mattering. Kids are dumb.
Maybe the union won’t let you get rid of the Chinese teacher, so as long as you are paying him you might as well have him teach? Maybe the common core demands that the foreign language be Spanish for whatever reason? Etc. Etc.
What I’m trying to say is that it feels super weird that this moral problem isn’t happening in the shadow of a bigger and more boring problem. It’s the whole ‘for one dramatic thing to need intervention a whole bunch of boring stuff has to set it up’ concept.
From a ‘right’ thing to do perspective, I imagine it would depend on which elective you thought would benefit the students the most. Like, you are the grown up. You know what will be valuable, better than they do. Put your weight behind what will be best for the kids.
Pretty simple for a straight utilitarian—option 2 forces 2 to get their second choice rather than first, and option 1 forces 10 to accept their second choice.
Complexities come when you add motives other than “best for the most”. If you’re not trying to optimize preference-satisfaction, but rather to discover value, you can treat the list as instant-run-off voting, and only offer the winners, forcing everyone to take these.
New week, new problem.
https://protokol2020.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/a-moral-problem/
Seems like there should be some externalities that overrule, yeah? Like, surely the kid’s preferences don’t end up mattering. Kids are dumb.
Maybe the union won’t let you get rid of the Chinese teacher, so as long as you are paying him you might as well have him teach? Maybe the common core demands that the foreign language be Spanish for whatever reason? Etc. Etc.
What I’m trying to say is that it feels super weird that this moral problem isn’t happening in the shadow of a bigger and more boring problem. It’s the whole ‘for one dramatic thing to need intervention a whole bunch of boring stuff has to set it up’ concept.
From a ‘right’ thing to do perspective, I imagine it would depend on which elective you thought would benefit the students the most. Like, you are the grown up. You know what will be valuable, better than they do. Put your weight behind what will be best for the kids.
...choking sounds followed by a fit of coughing...
Pretty simple for a straight utilitarian—option 2 forces 2 to get their second choice rather than first, and option 1 forces 10 to accept their second choice.
Complexities come when you add motives other than “best for the most”. If you’re not trying to optimize preference-satisfaction, but rather to discover value, you can treat the list as instant-run-off voting, and only offer the winners, forcing everyone to take these.
So lessee, who do we tie up and place on trolley tracks?
Real life trolley, not an imagined one.
Some people choose to throw 10 instead of 2, since nobody will ever know.