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>Don’t be a jerk. I answered your questions honestly. No, you evaded the question. All you see is morality. Your own personal morality. When a software develop
by rsj_hn 7y ago
>Don’t be a jerk. I answered your questions honestly.
No, you evaded the question. All you see is morality. Your own personal morality. When a software developer says "we should not use this design pattern because it's immoral" that's a person you either remove from their position of power or you mock. Complex phenomena are not subject to childish morality, they are subject to the question of whether they work or not and how well they work.
An economy is a complex system. You want the economy to produce a large amount of goods and services. Once it does, you can always tax the economy and seize output for public spending, so that's the place where we stick your moral sentiments. You do not apply moral reasoning to individual price vectors to insist that it's "wrong" that a tomato costs this much, or that a haircut costs that much.
Morality is an evolved sentiment design to govern your behavior in small tribal groups. You can't apply it to things like an airline scheduling system or a price vector.
>Are you asking why I want to involve myself in philosophical debate?
God, no. I know exactly why you do it. The world is filled with people like you, and indeed all teens go through a casuistry phase. It's a type of self-righteous disease that is the plague of the modern era. Once people lost faith in religion, they redirect their religious fervor to going on various moral crusades like banning straws or building "moral societies" that kill hundreds of millions of people. You might grow out of it at some point when you realize the world is much more complicated than you think, and what matters is that things actually work rather than conform to some mawkish moral sentiment that was never suited to design complex systems but to govern your own personal behavior in simple tribal situations.
No, what I'm wondering is why you think price vectors are "moral" concerns and why you think you are qualified to pronounce on them philosophically.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoI’m 35. I’m going to get millions killed by advocating for open source robotics and cooperative businesses? Give me a break. You’re seeing Stalin just because I think we should help one another. We’ve got hungry people sleeping on the streets in the wealthiest nation on earth. We’ve got jails filled with people of color whose only crime was being poor and black. If you don’t think concerned adults can reasonably discuss these subjects without “killing hundreds of millions” you’re a fool. > You want the economy to produce a large amount of goods and services. Once it does, you can always tax the economy and seize output for public spending, so that's the place where we stick your moral sentiments. You think the height of moral achievement is to use the government to tax incomes? Well that government also uses tax dollars to bomb weddings and school busses in the Middle East. And asking the government to help means deadlock fighting with people who don’t give a shit about your cause or the people you want to help. Excuse me for considering how we can help one another directly, without government intervention. Sheesh, I’m surprised on HN to find someone that thinks taxes are the best way to behave morally. And what of the adults who advocate for better social programs through government spending anyway? Are you going to call them children too? You can always feel superior in your arguments if you call your opponents children.
- rsj_hn 7y ago> You’re seeing Stalin just because I think we should help one another. No, you are not talking about "helping one another". You are talking about coercion. Amazon is offering an above market wage. Hundreds of thousands of workers want to work for this wage. And along comes Mr. Morality trying to prevent this exchange from happening because it seems "wrong" to him. Him and his 35 years of deep insight into the nature of morality. Why do you have a hard time seeing that a lot of people are sickened by this behavior? > You think the height of moral achievement is to use the government to tax incomes? No, I think part of growing up is understanding that economic systems don't conform to your morality, and frankly, neither does the world. Please get off of your high chair and stop talking about price vectors being moral or immoral. When you are able to see to the end of things and understand complex systems you can begin to think about weighing in on what you think is moral or immoral about them. Until then, just worry about your own behavior and let other people transact how they want. Nothing prevents you from starting a business and paying whatever wage you want, if you think you can do it better.