[ I’m in favor of discussing this, but I’m not sure it’s framed compatibly with LessWrong normal assumptions, and I’d rather not see a lot of it here. As such, I’ve neither upvoted nor downvoted. ]
Leave aside that your definition of “exploitation” covers the majority of human interaction—there’s always a mix of benefits and costs which are different (and on different dimensions) to each participant. The discussion can proceed even with that bias.
My primary concern is that you’re leaving out the MOST IMPORTANT part of decision-valuation: compared to what? Taking lower profits rather than killing striking workers is a comparison that I think most of us understand (and prefer the first option). Building a factory or not leaves out an analysis of “not”, in a way that it’s impossible to answer which option is better. Building a factory in a more industrialized/expensive location is one option to compare. It’s lower-profit, but it doesn’t help (and possibly further harms, through loss of opportunity) the poor area that remains subsistence-level in output. It probably does (maybe) help the rich-enough-to-make-good-decisions area, but it’s a less important change for them than it would be for the poor area.
[ I’m in favor of discussing this, but I’m not sure it’s framed compatibly with LessWrong normal assumptions, and I’d rather not see a lot of it here. As such, I’ve neither upvoted nor downvoted. ]
Leave aside that your definition of “exploitation” covers the majority of human interaction—there’s always a mix of benefits and costs which are different (and on different dimensions) to each participant. The discussion can proceed even with that bias.
My primary concern is that you’re leaving out the MOST IMPORTANT part of decision-valuation: compared to what? Taking lower profits rather than killing striking workers is a comparison that I think most of us understand (and prefer the first option). Building a factory or not leaves out an analysis of “not”, in a way that it’s impossible to answer which option is better. Building a factory in a more industrialized/expensive location is one option to compare. It’s lower-profit, but it doesn’t help (and possibly further harms, through loss of opportunity) the poor area that remains subsistence-level in output. It probably does (maybe) help the rich-enough-to-make-good-decisions area, but it’s a less important change for them than it would be for the poor area.