https://mobile.twitter.com/necromanzee/status/1472702108931694599
There are other examples but this was a pretty prominent reply. Plus many tweets don’t give their opinion directly on the question as this one does.
axioms ofdominion
Karma: 4
A lot of it might be hedonic treadmill stuff but some of it is basically a complexity tax. And of course some people look at relative poverty to some degree.
Basically the average person has access to cheaper and safer, if not always healthier, food than a Dickens character could ever dream, even cheap apartments are superior in almost all ways.
But the requirements to function effectively in modern society are quite a pain complexity wise. You probably need at least a cheap cell phone, you probably need to own or have access to a computer with capabilities around the $500 laptop range. Transit is a bit geographically varied as a problem but is similar to other such stuff.
Basically what you can buy is way up but so is what you “need” to buy. Humans are intensely social and while you don’t have to go full “keep up with the Jones family” there is strong pressure to be somewhat close to comparable people. Also for kids they are far more susceptible to comparison psychologically.
You could always dispute the validity of the view of the people sharing the tweet regarding “needs” vs “wants”. But that is distinct from them being incoherent/inconsistent in their claims vs the facts internally.
I don’t think you are correct. Just using raw absolute poverty isn’t a measure that a supporter of government social investment and economic equality would accept.
When you say “what we care about” the we might work in the context of libertarians/classical liberals who may or may not read Lesswrong . com but that we wouldn’t include the original tweeter or the people amplifying the tweet.
A much shorter less weird version of Metamorphises of the Prime Intellect. Any reflections on the similarity?
Someone wrote a comment on the school format they endorsed on ShtetlOptimized:
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6146#comment-1919410
If you have time how do you feel about the proposal. It seems like it engages with problems with the Prussian inspired education system used in America by collecting the effective parts of charters, and un/home schooling, although it opposes charters but allows for un/home school to exist.