Sorry I have little time and I’m just going to respond to the logic of offsetting right now. In utilitarianism ordinarily we maximize expected utility, so there’s no need to hedge. If two actions have the same expected utility but one has a higher % chance of having a negative outcome, they’re still equally good. Companies and investors need to protect certain interests so $2 million is less than twice as good as $1 million, but in utility terms 2 million utils is exactly twice as good as 1 million utils.
Of course you could deny expected utility maximization and be morally loss averse/risk averse, and then this would be a conversation to have. There are good arguments against doing that, however, it’s a minority view
Sorry I have little time and I’m just going to respond to the logic of offsetting right now. In utilitarianism ordinarily we maximize expected utility, so there’s no need to hedge. If two actions have the same expected utility but one has a higher % chance of having a negative outcome, they’re still equally good. Companies and investors need to protect certain interests so $2 million is less than twice as good as $1 million, but in utility terms 2 million utils is exactly twice as good as 1 million utils.
Of course you could deny expected utility maximization and be morally loss averse/risk averse, and then this would be a conversation to have. There are good arguments against doing that, however, it’s a minority view