James_Miller comments on Rationality Quotes Thread April 2015 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Vaniver 01 April 2015 01:35PM

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Comment author: pianoforte611 20 April 2015 12:52:48PM 2 points [-]

Af first I thought you doing that Redditesque sarcasm, in which you argue a straw man of the outgroup in a mocking way, which made me disappointed since the goal is signaling rather than discourse.

However perhaps you are being serious? Are social services a valid means of feeding a baby, rendering the original quote not applicable in countries where social services exist? I think the answer is obviously yes, in that if social services are available, people are going to use them. Whether the should exist is a separate discussion.

Comment author: James_Miller 20 April 2015 02:43:07PM 3 points [-]

I was being serious. Abstractly, if my doing X requires Y, but I don't have Y but I'm confident that if I do X the government will give me Y, then my lack of Y isn't much of a reason to forgo X.