Sorry for being unclear—the main point was about that blind spots are excessively techno (not necessarily technocratic but technophilanthropic), a la Autor’s China Shock literature, where technocrats overemphasized ‘gains from trade’ (reform), which everyone benefits from because we have slightly lower consumer prices on average, but the lowest income decile lost a lot and then you got populist backlash and Trump.
Analogously, OpenPhil and Econtwitter overemphasized ‘we’re irrationally afraid of higher inflation, unemployment is really bad’, let’s change central bank policy. In contrast to the above, this might have benefited the lowest income decile (at least till 2021) and was well-intentioned, but it was still very top down, and theory-driven, with very few feedback loops. We might see unintended consequences like Democrats losing elections, because 150m Americans have lower wages now (and perhaps unrest in poorer countries?).
But generally, the distinction doesn’t matters here, as civil society and philanthropy are part of the policy-making ecosystem, and there’s no principled argument that they shouldn’t be held to the same utilitarian standard as policy-makers and everyone else. Especially if they affect such large levers—there’s nothing sacred about philanthropic vs. government dollars. Anything else would be deontological libertarianism.
I took out Weyl’s name because several reviewers said people would be triggered by it. Maybe I should have reworded it and taken out the citation to avoid ad hominems and have the point stands on its own.
Sorry for being unclear—the main point was about that blind spots are excessively techno (not necessarily technocratic but technophilanthropic), a la Autor’s China Shock literature, where technocrats overemphasized ‘gains from trade’ (reform), which everyone benefits from because we have slightly lower consumer prices on average, but the lowest income decile lost a lot and then you got populist backlash and Trump.
Analogously, OpenPhil and Econtwitter overemphasized ‘we’re irrationally afraid of higher inflation, unemployment is really bad’, let’s change central bank policy. In contrast to the above, this might have benefited the lowest income decile (at least till 2021) and was well-intentioned, but it was still very top down, and theory-driven, with very few feedback loops. We might see unintended consequences like Democrats losing elections, because 150m Americans have lower wages now (and perhaps unrest in poorer countries?).
But generally, the distinction doesn’t matters here, as civil society and philanthropy are part of the policy-making ecosystem, and there’s no principled argument that they shouldn’t be held to the same utilitarian standard as policy-makers and everyone else. Especially if they affect such large levers—there’s nothing sacred about philanthropic vs. government dollars. Anything else would be deontological libertarianism.
I took out Weyl’s name because several reviewers said people would be triggered by it. Maybe I should have reworded it and taken out the citation to avoid ad hominems and have the point stands on its own.