I’m not saying everyone wins equally, just that everybody wins.
I really hope that this is the case, but I don’t think that it is. I think that the difference between the hypothetical socialist and libertarian are more dramatic than the difference between a Big-Ender and a Little-Ender. Consider this situation:
All of humanity consists of 100 people, starting at utility 10, and a random one of them is given this choice: either keep things the way they are (everyone has 10 utilons, total of 1000) or one person, at random, is given 990 utilons while everyone else loses 9, so one person will have 1000, and everyone else will have 1, for a total of 1099~11 per person. The expected utility of the latter option is higher than the first so every rational being must pick the latter, right? Though I’ve learned a lot since that conversation and I no longer would make the same points, I still think that an equitable distribution of utility is better than an unequal one. Many people genuinely think it is a wonderful thing to make it so that the world is highly stratified, that there are a whole lot of people who lose in order to have a few people who really, really win. There are also a whole lot of people who genuinely think it is worth sacrificing some amount of “progress” (by which I mean technological innovation, cheapness of consumer goods, whatever) in order to have people’s lives be more equitable. I lie closer to the second camp, but I haven’t pounded my tentstakes into the ground, and even if I have, I certainly haven’t laid a brick-and-mortar foundation, so I can uproot fairly quickly. I understand the logic that comes to the former conclusion; I think it just starts from different premises than the people who come to the latter (though of course there are crazies who come to both but that goes without saying). It does seem to me, however, that the two actually are fundamentally irreconcilable in very important ways. I hope I’m wrong about that, but it really seems like I’m not...
edit: Certainly arguments like “ought gay people/mixed race couples be allowed to get married” seem more like arguments about egg-peeling, and so your strategy hopefully would work there
Absolutely agreed that the difference between “I’m worse off than I was, and you’re better off” (as in your example) and “I’m better off than I was, and you’re much more better off than I am” (e.g.; we start off at 10 utilons each, a randomly chosen person gets +1010 utilons and everyone else gets +10 utilons) matters here.
I’m talking about the second case… that is, I’m not making the “maximize global utility” argument.
This has nothing to do with inequity. The second case is just as unequal as the first: at the end of the day one person has 999 utility more than his neighbors. The difference is that in the second case his neighbors are better off than they were at the start, and in the first case they are worse off.
As for whether one or the other real-world cases (e.g., socialist/libertarian) are more like the first or second; I don’t really know.
I really hope that this is the case, but I don’t think that it is. I think that the difference between the hypothetical socialist and libertarian are more dramatic than the difference between a Big-Ender and a Little-Ender. Consider this situation:
All of humanity consists of 100 people, starting at utility 10, and a random one of them is given this choice: either keep things the way they are (everyone has 10 utilons, total of 1000) or one person, at random, is given 990 utilons while everyone else loses 9, so one person will have 1000, and everyone else will have 1, for a total of 1099~11 per person. The expected utility of the latter option is higher than the first so every rational being must pick the latter, right? Though I’ve learned a lot since that conversation and I no longer would make the same points, I still think that an equitable distribution of utility is better than an unequal one. Many people genuinely think it is a wonderful thing to make it so that the world is highly stratified, that there are a whole lot of people who lose in order to have a few people who really, really win. There are also a whole lot of people who genuinely think it is worth sacrificing some amount of “progress” (by which I mean technological innovation, cheapness of consumer goods, whatever) in order to have people’s lives be more equitable. I lie closer to the second camp, but I haven’t pounded my tentstakes into the ground, and even if I have, I certainly haven’t laid a brick-and-mortar foundation, so I can uproot fairly quickly. I understand the logic that comes to the former conclusion; I think it just starts from different premises than the people who come to the latter (though of course there are crazies who come to both but that goes without saying). It does seem to me, however, that the two actually are fundamentally irreconcilable in very important ways. I hope I’m wrong about that, but it really seems like I’m not...
edit: Certainly arguments like “ought gay people/mixed race couples be allowed to get married” seem more like arguments about egg-peeling, and so your strategy hopefully would work there
Absolutely agreed that the difference between “I’m worse off than I was, and you’re better off” (as in your example) and “I’m better off than I was, and you’re much more better off than I am” (e.g.; we start off at 10 utilons each, a randomly chosen person gets +1010 utilons and everyone else gets +10 utilons) matters here.
I’m talking about the second case… that is, I’m not making the “maximize global utility” argument.
This has nothing to do with inequity. The second case is just as unequal as the first: at the end of the day one person has 999 utility more than his neighbors. The difference is that in the second case his neighbors are better off than they were at the start, and in the first case they are worse off.
As for whether one or the other real-world cases (e.g., socialist/libertarian) are more like the first or second; I don’t really know.