I distance myself from longtermism for the reasons you spell out here, i.e. correcting inequality is not seen as a priority. But I do agree that fixing inequality should be a key priority even by longtermist principles. The longtermists that do not think it is a priority are often not even aware that they hold shaky (in my opinion) assumptions that:
Inequality does not deprive us of talent to solve presing world problems
Inequality does not exacerbates the scale and probability of X-Risks and Catastropic-Risks
Inequality itself is not a significant source of suffering if allowed to perpetuate into the future
There are other reformulations of longtermism that exist outside of the normal EA community, usually by critics of longtermism. For example:
I distance myself from longtermism for the reasons you spell out here, i.e. correcting inequality is not seen as a priority. But I do agree that fixing inequality should be a key priority even by longtermist principles. The longtermists that do not think it is a priority are often not even aware that they hold shaky (in my opinion) assumptions that:
Inequality does not deprive us of talent to solve presing world problems
Inequality does not exacerbates the scale and probability of X-Risks and Catastropic-Risks
Inequality itself is not a significant source of suffering if allowed to perpetuate into the future
There are other reformulations of longtermism that exist outside of the normal EA community, usually by critics of longtermism. For example:
https://www.carlbeijer.com/p/there-is-no-long-term-without-socialism (article is paywalled but if you message me privately, I am happy to share a copy of it I have saved).
Hi Mohammad,
Thanks for your comment which I find expounds on my train of thought fairly accurately!