Thanks for sharing! Glad this is working for you. I’m seeing similar results: reading more and spending more time thinking.
Lars Mennen
Karma: 46
Thanks for your comment! I agree with your point on how egalitarians can be in favour of growth.
True, but wealth inequality implies stark differences in power.
Good point, but I’m not sure that justifies a large number of policies that might lead to lower sustainable growth in the long run in favour of more equality. There’s definitely a balance to strike here I think between making sure power does not get too unequally distributed and growth; it’s not black and white. In particular, you also want to maintain a stable economy and democracy (necessary for growth to be sustainable), which does require solid institutions and I would argue also some degree of egalitarianism. Perhaps some metrics around stability can be added as early indicators to monitor while mainly focusing on sustainable growth? Curious for your thoughts on this. And thanks for the reading tip on Gerald Cohen, will add that to the list :)
Thanks for the comment, that’s a very fair point! There are certainly some issues on how such services are represented in these metrics. I think if we can find a better way to measure the state of the economy that accurately includes this, I would be in favour. This article for example has a proposal to do that.
I don’t think it changes the main argument for focusing on the sustainable economic growth (in that case measured by a more accurate metric) instead of focusing on metrics like happiness or life expectancy (or other metrics not directly measuring economic growth) though. What do you think?
Great point on lowering the bar for coaching. fwiw, I think multiple local EA groups are now offering career coaching. I don’t know to what extent these are designed from scratch or following 80K, but they should lower the bar. I think having a separate organization (perhaps allowing local groups to offer the programs) could help this though.