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Notes -
A fun framework I often go to for thinking about policy issues is what I guess I'll call "identifying a Buridan point". The gist is:
Given a binary decision (options A or B) I must make based on a continuous input where:
there must exist some point C (Y>C>X), where I am perfectly equivocal between options A and B. This point C is the "Buridan point" and gives me a quantification of my stance on a particular issue.
Here is a simple example: Suppose Joe must decide if he supports euthanizing all dogs based on the rate of children killed by dogs:
Therefore, there must exist some "acceptable" rate of children killed by dogs X at which Joe finds the benefits of dog ownership to exactly offset the lives of killed children.
In an ideal world, people would keep control of their dogs but there will be mistakes and there will be bad actors. The only way to absolutely guarantee that no child is killed by a dog is by eliminating all dogs. The decision to not euthanize all dogs is accepting that the children killed by dogs every year are an acceptable sacrifice for the option of dog ownership.
What is X(dogs) for you?
Control+F replace all, dog -> gun
Control+F replace all, euthaniz -> confiscat
What is X(guns) for you?
Obviously actual policy decisions have a continuous or at least graded set of options, rather than an extreme binary, but I find such questions revealing nevertheless. Despite the absurdity, it makes me ask myself: "How much better/worse do things have to get for me to reverse my position?"
Anyways, any thoughts on whether this has any value for quantifying preferences?
Not very useful in practice.
What’s your Buridan number for dogs-vs.-children? How’d you come to that assessment?
Me with dogs is a bad example because I deeply hate dog culture, so I wouldn't mind deleting dogs even at zero children (can preserve a couple at zoos, but eliminate the pet culture). There are already leash laws, pick-up-your-dog's-shit laws, noise ordinances, no-dog-zones. At least in my city, dog owners consistently ignore all of these and no one bothers to enforce them. And I'm thoroughly fed up with dodging piles of shit every time I go for a walk, smelling dog piss in every hallway and elevator of my building, seeing dogs licking items at the grocery store, hearing hours long bark sessions, etc. All these negative externalities, coupled with my belief that dogs are essentially a superstimulus for friendship/childrearing and I already find them a net negative to society even before accounting for the kids they maul every year.
Agreed it is a bad example. You’re in the edge case for dog culture: a well-paved city, the concrete jungle, where woofers wouldn’t tread were they human-less.
In the country, working dogs are worth their weight in silver. In the suburbs, they’re indeed a superstimulus for friendship/childrearing, but also induce friendliness betwixt dog people, and function as alarm systems.
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Exactly. The Burundian (thanks, autocorrect!) number is downstream of your reasoning, so it’s hard to recommend as a quantifying tool.
But is it not useful as a measure of how much I value the right to dog ownership (i.e., not at all)? I imagine a dog-lover would have a much higher number and the difference could be reflected somewhat quantitatively as such.
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