Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Two-Party Swindle - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 01 January 2008 08:38AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 01 January 2008 04:05:28PM 8 points [-]

Knecht: Even if the truck drivers of the world did not divide the world into in-group and out-group (which they do in pretty much every aspect of life, not just politics and sports), the football players would still be paid thousands of times more.

If the truck drivers of the world did not divide the world into in-group and out-group there would be no such thing as football.

Shalmanese: I object to your assertion that football players are paid disproportionate salaries relative to other fields.

Yes, I read Freakonomics too. I said "professional", and as for it being disproportionate, it's not disproportionate to a scalable economic where one person can provide a service for many people (and everyone competes to be that one person). But the service provided only exists in the first place because of team thinking, and you have to take a step back to see that.

Hanson: You have not offered evidence that politicians have failed their duties. Bryan Caplan argues persuasively that we roughly have the polices that the public wants.

Then why have politicians? Who says the duty of a politician is to do whatever the public wants? But if the duty of a politician is something other than this, then the public must still decide whether the politician is good at it. Otherwise, why have voters?