My commentary would be that promoting political ideologies (or connecting to them) sound usually bottom-lined to me about the nature of reality. I think that bundling concepts under the tag “socialism” or “capitalism” makes it hard to sift through it and find the occasional diamond (see this). It’s hard to “check” whether socialism works, because it refers to too many things at the same time.
Let’s suppose the government spends money, not on subsidies for national activities X or Y, but for interventions X or Y in the global south. Is this socialism? I don’t care. The real question is : does it work? What are the costs? What are the benefits? How does it compare with my pondered ethical beliefs?
Some people would be happy to denounce legislation on AI frontier model as excessive governmental regulation, and thus socialism. But this is not important. What is important is : does it work? Does it help reduce X-risks? What do superforecasters say?
I’m not interested in evaluating the general tendency to act like a socialist, but specific interventions, no matter which tribe identifies to it. It doesn’t seem like healthy thinking to me to bundle interventions in packages and call them “socialist” and have the entire package be considered either as working or not working, worthy trying or not trying. I’ll be very happy to have one kind of systemic change such as massive governmental subsidy for a medical system in one country, and zero subsidies in another, if the end results are equally counterfactually optimal regarding my set of moral credences.
In contrast, charter cities experimenting with various interventions, or analyzing data resulting from the application of distinct policies, all sound like a more promising idea to me -and I be damned if the end intervention is socialist, capitalist, or whatever. For a more zoomed-out alternative, stuff like Reasoned Politics sounds less confusing to me.
My commentary would be that promoting political ideologies (or connecting to them) sound usually bottom-lined to me about the nature of reality. I think that bundling concepts under the tag “socialism” or “capitalism” makes it hard to sift through it and find the occasional diamond (see this). It’s hard to “check” whether socialism works, because it refers to too many things at the same time.
Let’s suppose the government spends money, not on subsidies for national activities X or Y, but for interventions X or Y in the global south. Is this socialism? I don’t care. The real question is : does it work? What are the costs? What are the benefits? How does it compare with my pondered ethical beliefs?
Some people would be happy to denounce legislation on AI frontier model as excessive governmental regulation, and thus socialism. But this is not important. What is important is : does it work? Does it help reduce X-risks? What do superforecasters say?
I’m not interested in evaluating the general tendency to act like a socialist, but specific interventions, no matter which tribe identifies to it. It doesn’t seem like healthy thinking to me to bundle interventions in packages and call them “socialist” and have the entire package be considered either as working or not working, worthy trying or not trying. I’ll be very happy to have one kind of systemic change such as massive governmental subsidy for a medical system in one country, and zero subsidies in another, if the end results are equally counterfactually optimal regarding my set of moral credences.
In contrast, charter cities experimenting with various interventions, or analyzing data resulting from the application of distinct policies, all sound like a more promising idea to me -and I be damned if the end intervention is socialist, capitalist, or whatever. For a more zoomed-out alternative, stuff like Reasoned Politics sounds less confusing to me.