> However, without an instrument that could actually measure this quantity, any governance structure based on your framework would be at the mercy of . . . All

> However, without an instrument that could actually measure this quantity, any governance structure based on your framework would be at the mercy of . . . All systems -- government, financial, computer -- are social systems, in that they're built with human beings as the foundation, and not the other way around. Because humans are subjective, squishy, and imprecise, it follows naturally and unavoidably that systems built on top of us need to accommodate those properties as invariants. They should not (because they can not) presume their foundation as some kind of objective, fixed, precise spherical cow of uniform density. Yes, measurement of suffering is subjective. No, that's not a reason to avoid doing it. It's precisely that subjectivity which makes the systems built on top of it sound.