gwern comments on [video] Robin Hanson: Uploads Economics 101 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: mapnoterritory 05 August 2012 09:00PM

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Comment author: gwern 06 August 2012 09:26:03PM 3 points [-]

The difference being that foragers don't have titles/deeds or even a clear understanding of property-ownership.

So what? History is still not kind. I pointed out 2 more examples to Hanson, which I think he blogged about, where someone doing something very similar to Franklin saw the money completely wasted. 1/3 odds is not especially encouraging given that the analysis has only just begun...

For example, a deeper analysis might include the Islamic world's perpetual charity corporation, the waqf which form dates back almost to the beginning, collectively comprised a huge chunk of various economies - but while they did much better than one might expect, most still ceased to exist at some point. As far as I know, every wafq started in, say, 1000 AD is now dead. There may be a few Egyptian survivors from later centuries, attached to the University, but nevertheless, the overall picture is one of a very low survival rate. (I've pointed out waqfs to Hanson multiple times, but I don't know what he makes of them.)