SilasBarta comments on Less Wrong Should Confront Wrongness Wherever it Appears - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (159)
Looking back, it seems that Crono was asking two questions that only appear to be the same:
One question is answered by comparing some accounting figures. The other is asking us to imagine a counterfactual in which everyone goes through and pays off debts. You're answering the first one, while I was answering the second.
And in that case, there could be e.g. only $X in cash instruments, $10X in government debt, and yet it could still be paid off: Say, one year people earn $3X in wages, pay $0.5X in taxes, then the government pays the $0.5X of debt that just matured. Interest could kick in which is less than this amount. The people who get the money from the maturing bounds can't making loans and so spend the money, generating wages, generating tax revenue, generating reduced government debt, and so on.
Oh, absolutely, I'm not disputing that the debt can theoretically be paid off in full - that's exactly what I mean when I say it's not really a problem that the accounting figure is negative. If that wasn't the case we'd be in in real trouble. The idea that cash needs to match the face value of debt is a confusion in a debt based economy like ours.
Understood. So do you agree Crono really is asking two very separate questions, even though it may seem like they're the same?
To be honest it didn't even occur to me that he'd confuse those two issues but I'd agree that it looks like he may have done. It did puzzle me when I first saw the question why Robin Hanson wouldn't have just said 'negative'.