Whenever caplan and cowen disagree, I fall on the side of caplan. Cowen has much more of a normie/establishment streak, his arguments lack originality and bite.
Here too, he falls for the vacuous 'up to eternity' argument . Just because theoretically, we cannot mine resources or produce CO2 for all eternity does not mean in the slightest that we need to act now, or in a million years. As a wise man said, eternity is a long time. Those who brought those arguments hundreds of years ago (or millenia - I think the greek were worried about running out of copper) have been falsified. In a way. Because of course you cannot falsify a prediction to eternity.
There is a lot in the book which is good, and true, nonetheless I fear the final message of the work will lower rather than raise social welfare.
What is this consequentialist hair doing in my truth-finding soup? Either check the facts or do propaganda, never mix the two.
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Notes -
Whenever caplan and cowen disagree, I fall on the side of caplan. Cowen has much more of a normie/establishment streak, his arguments lack originality and bite.
Here too, he falls for the vacuous 'up to eternity' argument . Just because theoretically, we cannot mine resources or produce CO2 for all eternity does not mean in the slightest that we need to act now, or in a million years. As a wise man said, eternity is a long time. Those who brought those arguments hundreds of years ago (or millenia - I think the greek were worried about running out of copper) have been falsified. In a way. Because of course you cannot falsify a prediction to eternity.
What is this consequentialist hair doing in my truth-finding soup? Either check the facts or do propaganda, never mix the two.
I've noticed this too. Caplan is less concerned with taboo.
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