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asr comments on How not to move the goalposts - Less Wrong
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Comments (71)
Good choice of topic, but ...
I think it may be the worst possible choice. First, for suggesting that the question of compensation for engineers should be approached as a moral issue. Second, for failing to make the point that differences (between the sexes) in engineering aptitude in the general population says nothing about differences in engineering skill among people who have already been hired as engineers. Third, because gender differences between groups say little about differences between individuals. Fourth, because gender is a problematic subject in this forum, even when you do everything right.
I also second Nesov's cringe at the implicit conflation of unpleasant and suitable-to-be-disagreed-with.
I'd like to defend HopeFox here.
Whenever the people around you treat something as a moral issue, I think it's wise to consider it that way yourself. When somebody says "I have a terminal value that says 'I want my society to have X/~X', and therefore I will vote to ban it", it's usually time to decide how valuable you consider X/~X to be.
You might decide that the given thing is morally neutral, but you can't easily evade the question. And my strong sense is that a large fraction of the public in the US and other western countries does consider wage equality a moral issue. There may be deep disagreement about whether equality of gender outcome is good or bad, but the question is certainly on the table.
My experience has been that gender is a problematic subject in nearly any social setting. But it's worth at least tiptoeing slowly towards it, since it won't become less problematic in the near future if we don't at least accustom ourselves to thinking about it.
Upvoted. If I were to rewrite my critique of the OP, it would be to complain that he/she treated compensation equity as if it were only a moral issue.