My answer to it is that it’s a case of status quo bias. People see the world we live in as world A, and so status quo bias makes the repugnant conclusion repugnant. But, looking at the world, I see no reason to assume we aren’t in world Z. So the question becomes, would it be acceptable to painlessly kill a large percentage of the population to make the rest happier, and the intuitive answer is no. But that is the same as saying world Z is better than world A, which is the repugnant conclusion.
My answer to it is that it’s a case of status quo bias. People see the world we live in as world A, and so status quo bias makes the repugnant conclusion repugnant. But, looking at the world, I see no reason to assume we aren’t in world Z. So the question becomes, would it be acceptable to painlessly kill a large percentage of the population to make the rest happier, and the intuitive answer is no. But that is the same as saying world Z is better than world A, which is the repugnant conclusion.