army1987 comments on Just another day in utopia - Less Wrong

78 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 25 December 2011 09:37AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 18 January 2012 05:47:40PM 3 points [-]

I do not think the parent is so obviously wrong to be worth being downvoted to -4 without even mentioning what's wrong with it. (I actually agree with much of it. There was even a Robin Hanson post about the fact that “the poor also smile” (can't link to it because Overcoming Bias is blacked out today).

Comment author: Nornagest 18 January 2012 06:14:09PM *  7 points [-]

I downvoted the grandparent for making unintuitive claims about the money:happiness relation without presenting evidence (my understanding is that subsistence-level income does have a significant and negative effect on happiness, although the plot of happiness over income levels off quickly after a basic level of financial security is achieved), for making sketchy claims about adaptation without evidence, for conflating approval with preference (particularly glaring because the point about happiness/income above only works without conflating the two), and for the entirely unnecessary swipe at perceived LW norms in the last sentence.

Oh, and by way of disclaimer, I didn't find the original story especially compelling as a vision of utopia.