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There’s an old joke about a statistician who drowned in water that was only one meter deep - On Average. Thinking in terms of aggregate value neglects the possi
by blululu 5y ago
There’s an old joke about a statistician who drowned in water that was only one meter deep - On Average.
Thinking in terms of aggregate value neglects the possibility that you will create winners and losers in such a scenario and creating a system of transfers to share the aggregate surplus is politically difficult.
- sokoloff 5y agoI agree it's a sovereign nation's call on what to do, but it seems like improving the lot of everyone who buys food (10s of millions of people) is something I'd be more inclined to do than to ensure that farmers (10s of hundreds of people) who are demonstrably uncompetitive continue to have a path to profitability anyway.
- Amezarak 5y agoThere are 2.6 million farmers in the US, or about 1.3% of the employed population. In less developed economies farmers are a much higher percentage of the population. We are talking about helping tens of millions of people who are farming. In Nigeria for example, it’s 35% of the population. Only in very tiny countries are there only ‘tens of hundreds’ of farmers. Do you really think that wiping out employment for a third of the population would improve the economy? It takes money to make money.
- sokoloff 5y agoDo you really think that harming 2 people for every 1 you help is obviously the best course of action? (It’s not obviously better to me, though you point out some ways that it might not be as bad as that framing suggests.)