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In theory optimizing for money long term should align everyone's interests. The problem is that (for a number of reasons) public executives have far more incent
by msgodel 1y ago
In theory optimizing for money long term should align everyone's interests. The problem is that (for a number of reasons) public executives have far more incentive to be short sighted.
- wat10000 1y agoHow’s that? I can see that being the case in a world where all interactions are voluntary, but that’s not reality.
- mindslight 1y agoNo, it doesn't. You're assuming that markets have a computational efficiency and smoothness that simply isn't there. P != NP. Markets are a heuristic based around mediating between the interests of different parties precisely because the overall problem is computationally hard. If markets achieved the kind of optimality you're thinking, then top-down central planning would also be workable.
- wat10000 1y agoEven if markets were perfect, they’re not involved when a company decides to dump toxins into the air or water to save a buck.
- mindslight 1y agoSure, but the usual counterargument is that the air and water need to be made legible to the market (through private ownership or the correct externality taxes), and then everything will be perfect. While in reality that's demanding a level of computation from markets that they simply do not possess.