Eugine_Nier comments on Please don't vote because democracy is a local optimum - Less Wrong

-9 [deleted] 05 November 2012 08:09PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 November 2012 01:09:24AM 4 points [-]

I want workplace to be more forager and family to be more farmer. Nearly all of us are socialized to accept ridiculous amounts of workplace domination or what seems like workplace domination to our forager brains. We also get surprisingly little economic gain for this.

This is an industrial age phenomenon caused by industrial economies of scale.

Comment author: [deleted] 15 November 2012 08:59:07AM *  3 points [-]

I agree. It has impressive productivity gains in say 19th century factory work, but I think its gains are much smaller than usually assumed in say a white collar setting. I think the cost to the well-being of the workers might now that we in the West don't starve any more outweigh the productivity gains. A good utilitarian counterargument can be made that we need every little bit of efficiency until we say cure aging or develop FAI.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 16 November 2012 01:45:28AM 3 points [-]

It has impressive productivity gains in say 19th century factory work, but I think its gains are much smaller than usually assumed in say a white collar setting.

Heck, I'm not convinced the gains in the white collar setting outweigh the loses due to the resulting signaling games. Especially now that routine secretarial tasks can be done automatically.

Comment author: TimS 15 November 2012 01:50:33AM 0 points [-]

This is surprisingly Marxist-flavored analysis from Eugine_Nier. Not that the post is wrong.