Wei_Dai comments on Shut Up and Divide? - Less Wrong

60 Post author: Wei_Dai 09 February 2010 08:09PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 10 February 2010 03:12:06AM 5 points [-]

Yes, assuming that the fruits of your labor that was bought for $10 is another luxury (say a bottle of wine) instead of a necessity, then that person also killed $10 worth of people. Because suppose he had bought $10 worth of mosquito nets, then you could have worked as a mosquito net maker instead of a vintner, and you still would have gotten the $10. The two of you could have saved $20 worth of people, so not doing that is equivalent to each killing $10 worth of people.

Comment author: MrHen 10 February 2010 03:24:54AM 3 points [-]

Yeah, it finally clicked. The key point I was missing was that $10 costs time for me to obtain. By the time I obtain it, more people die.

Comment author: CarlShulman 10 February 2010 12:28:01PM 0 points [-]

Upvoted for clarity.