dxu comments on Torture vs. Dust Specks - Less Wrong

39 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 October 2007 02:50AM

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Comment author: Jiro 26 March 2015 03:51:09PM 2 points [-]

Asking me it is obvious that we don´t want Denmark to go bankrupt just because it may annoy some people that they have to sacriface 1 dollar.

The trouble is that there is a continuous sequence from

Take $1 from everyone

Take $1.01 from almost everyone

Take $1.02 from almost almost everyone

...

Take a lot of money from very few people (Denmark)

If you think that taking $1 from everyone is okay, but taking a lot of money from Denmark is bad, then there is some point in the middle of this sequence where your opinion changes even though the numbers only change slightly. You will have to say, for instance, taking $20 each from 1/20 the population of the world is good, but taking $20.01 each from slightly less than 1/10 the population of the world is bad. Can you say that?

Comment author: dxu 26 March 2015 04:46:35PM 1 point [-]

You will have to say, for instance, taking $20 each from 1/20 the population of the world is good, but taking $20.01 each from slightly less than 1/10 the population of the world is bad. (emphasis mine)

Typo here?

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