You seem to think that this post poses a single clear puzzle, of the sort that could have a single answer.
I disagree. I think the post has clarity problems (especially in its definition of poverty in terms of “desperate scrabbling”, which conflates a lack of at least one essential material resource with anything at all that a person might desperately care about) and kind of gestures at various questions related to poverty.
You seem to think that this post poses a single clear puzzle, of the sort that could have a single answer.
The single clear puzzle, in my reading, is ‘why have large increases in material wealth failed to create a world where people don’t feel obligated to work long hours at jobs they hate?’ That may or may not have a single answer, but I think it’s a pretty clearly defined puzzle.
The essay gives it in two parts. First, the opening paragraph:
I’m skeptical that Universal Basic Income can get rid of grinding poverty, since somehow humanity’s 100-fold productivity increase (since the days of agriculture) didn’t eliminate poverty.
But that requires a concrete standard for poverty, which is given a bit lower:
What would it be like for people to not be poor? I reply: You wouldn’t see people working 60-hour weeks, at jobs where they have to smile and bear it when their bosses abuse them.
You seem to think that this post poses a single clear puzzle, of the sort that could have a single answer.
I disagree. I think the post has clarity problems (especially in its definition of poverty in terms of “desperate scrabbling”, which conflates a lack of at least one essential material resource with anything at all that a person might desperately care about) and kind of gestures at various questions related to poverty.
The single clear puzzle, in my reading, is ‘why have large increases in material wealth failed to create a world where people don’t feel obligated to work long hours at jobs they hate?’ That may or may not have a single answer, but I think it’s a pretty clearly defined puzzle.
The essay gives it in two parts. First, the opening paragraph:
But that requires a concrete standard for poverty, which is given a bit lower: