Hi Villafana. Sorry I missed this comment earlier! Hope to see you at one of our other upcoming discussion groups if you’re local :)
The goal of this discussion wasn’t necessarily to determine if population growth is or isn’t an issue (though lately I’ve seen more concern about declining replacement rates than overpopulation), but to better understanding why people in the EA community have considered population ethics and the different population-related tradeoffs that we might come across.
You mention housing for homeless people—that’s a great example of a situation that would be helpful to consider from different viewpoints within population ethics. How does it affect the wellbeing of communities who receive this new population? Is it ethical to incentivize people to move into housing or is it undermining individual choice? Is this the best way to increase wellbeing for homeless people who might have different values and desires? (no need to answer these questions, its just an example of how one might try to develop a deeper understanding)
We have enough empty homes to provide every homeless person in the world with 8 and that number of empty homes is only growing, not due to disease—but suicide
Personally I haven’t seen any data that shows an increase in available housing due to suicide deaths. I often fall back to Our World in Data, which shows the magnitude of deaths attributed to disease. These issues, such as mental and physical health, are often incredibly complex.
Hi Villafana. Sorry I missed this comment earlier! Hope to see you at one of our other upcoming discussion groups if you’re local :)
The goal of this discussion wasn’t necessarily to determine if population growth is or isn’t an issue (though lately I’ve seen more concern about declining replacement rates than overpopulation), but to better understanding why people in the EA community have considered population ethics and the different population-related tradeoffs that we might come across.
You mention housing for homeless people—that’s a great example of a situation that would be helpful to consider from different viewpoints within population ethics. How does it affect the wellbeing of communities who receive this new population? Is it ethical to incentivize people to move into housing or is it undermining individual choice? Is this the best way to increase wellbeing for homeless people who might have different values and desires? (no need to answer these questions, its just an example of how one might try to develop a deeper understanding)
Personally I haven’t seen any data that shows an increase in available housing due to suicide deaths. I often fall back to Our World in Data, which shows the magnitude of deaths attributed to disease. These issues, such as mental and physical health, are often incredibly complex.