4 ms·

i selfishly don't want to take the necessary individual action where my personal cost-benefit analysis comes out negative. for example, i could become a vegan.

by shoo 8y ago

i selfishly don't want to take the necessary individual action where my personal cost-benefit analysis comes out negative. for example, i could become a vegan. if i did so, the net benefit to humanity would be positive. but i don't want to, as i'd have to privately pay the cost (no more delicious chicken) while the benefits (in terms of reduced global cumulative greenhouse gas emissions) are spread across the billions of the rest of you. however, i really want you all to take individual action to limit your greenhouse emissions so i can benefit. go vegan, have fewer children, get your economies to install carbon taxes. yes please, i'd love the lot of you to do that. i'm very willing to trade you something of value in return for you making lifestyle changes that don't locally benefit you. how do we make this kind of trade happen? how do we make this kind of collective agreement to change behaviour happen faster?

js8 8y ago
There is a simple answer, really, but you won't like it. "i'm very willing to trade you something of value in return for you making lifestyle changes that don't locally benefit you" If it's true, then you can make the next small step. For example, for every vegan you have as a friend you can decide to eat less meat. Or for every friend without a car, you can take a bus once in a while. And so on. That would be a valuable gift to these people, who decided to selflessly take the first step.
matt4077 8y ago
That's called the "collective action problem", and the single most effective solution is called "law".
uxcolumbo 8y ago
FYI, Veganism isn't about reducing your carbon footprint or living healthily, those things are an added bonus. Being vegan means saying no to cruelty towards other sentient and intelligent beings and enslaving them for our culinary pleasure purposes. So having a friend who is vegan wouldn't really eliminate cruelty towards chickens for example, as your craving for delicious chicken would still require chickens to be slaughtered, i.e. Is cruelty ok, so you can continue to experience culinary pleasures? Tough questions... Edit: mainly referring to factory farming and large scale meat industry, where most of the meat we consume comes from.

by shoo 8y ago

js8 8y ago

There is a simple answer, really, but you won't like it. "i'm very willing to trade you something of value in return for you making lifestyle changes that don't locally benefit you" If it's true, then you can make the next small step. For example, for every vegan you have as a friend you can decide to eat less meat. Or for every friend without a car, you can take a bus once in a while. And so on. That would be a valuable gift to these people, who decided to selflessly take the first step.

matt4077 8y ago

That's called the "collective action problem", and the single most effective solution is called "law".

uxcolumbo 8y ago

FYI, Veganism isn't about reducing your carbon footprint or living healthily, those things are an added bonus. Being vegan means saying no to cruelty towards other sentient and intelligent beings and enslaving them for our culinary pleasure purposes. So having a friend who is vegan wouldn't really eliminate cruelty towards chickens for example, as your craving for delicious chicken would still require chickens to be slaughtered, i.e. Is cruelty ok, so you can continue to experience culinary pleasures? Tough questions... Edit: mainly referring to factory farming and large scale meat industry, where most of the meat we consume comes from.