Daniel_Burfoot comments on Open thread, Oct. 27 - Nov. 2, 2014 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: MrMind 27 October 2014 08:58AM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 27 October 2014 03:20:55PM *  1 point [-]

I would suggest ANZAC, Germany, Japan, or Singapore. I realized after making this list that those countries have an important property in common, which is that they are run by relatively young political systems. Scandinavia is also good. Most countries are probably ethically better than the US, simply because they are inert: they get an ethical score of zero while the US gets a negative score.

(This is supposed to be a response to Lumifer's question below).

Comment author: Lumifer 27 October 2014 03:34:32PM 4 points [-]

would suggest ANZAC, Germany, Japan, or Singapore. ... Scandinavia is also good.

That's a very curious list, notable for absences as well as for inclusions. I am a bit stumped, for I cannot figure out by which criteria was it constructed. Would you care to elaborate why do these countries look to you as the most ethical on the planet?

Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 27 October 2014 10:05:33PM 1 point [-]

I don't claim that the list is exhaustive or that the countries I mentioned are ethically great. I just claim that they're ethically better than the US.

Comment author: Lumifer 28 October 2014 03:02:36PM 0 points [-]

Hmm... Is any Western European country ethically worse than the USA from your point of view? Would Canada make the list? Does any poor country qualify?

Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 28 October 2014 03:15:29PM *  -1 points [-]

In my view Western Europe is mostly inert, so it gets an ethics score of 0, which is better than the US. Some poor countries are probably okay, I wouldn't want to make sweeping claims about them. The problem with most poor countries is that their governments are too corrupt. Canada does make the list, I thought ANZAC stood for Australia, New Zealand And Canada.

Comment author: Metus 27 October 2014 09:46:02PM 1 point [-]

Modern countries with developed economies lacking a military force involved and/or capable of military intervention outside of its territory. Maybe his grief is with the US military so I just went with that.

Comment author: Azathoth123 28 October 2014 03:54:16AM 4 points [-]

Which is to say they engage in a lot of free riding on the US military.

Comment author: DanielFilan 27 October 2014 10:50:13PM 2 points [-]

For reference, ANZAC stands for the "Australia and New Zealand Army Corps" that fought in WWI. If you mean "Australia and New Zealand", then I don't think there's a shorter way of saying that than just listing the two countries.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 28 October 2014 10:03:55PM 2 points [-]

"the Antipodes"