= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
MixedNuts comments on Open Thread, October 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (477)
If every spinster drinks the sleeping tea, less cloth will be made, but people will need it just as much. Thus cloth will become more precious, and people will be willing to pay 4/3 of the old price. The kids won't starve.
Instead, someone else goes unclothed.
More generally, if everyone drinks the tea and produces only 3/4 as much, everyone, on average, will be 1/4 poorer. Price movements only affect how the poverty is distributed. (Of course, they also affect what new resources are tapped, what new inventions are made, how hard people will work during their reduced hours, how existing resources are redistributed among their uses, and how effort will be redistributed among the different productive activities, but that is going beyond the purpose of the parable.)
Yvain's premise is that the country is warm, so people only make clothes to show off their wealth, ability to sew, and taste in fashion. Someone decides "I was already reluctant to buy those expensive rags, now they're just too expensive" and joins the ranks of streakers.
So is demand for cloth elastic, or is it not?
That's the parable of the broken window.
How many fish does the fisherman catch in an hour?
Aimed for cleverness, failed. Apologies. Retracting.
It's the right word.
Bludgeoning people with poorly-constructed polls isn't kosher, particularly when you're wrong in the first place.
What was this about? Just curious.
I (arguably incorrectly) brought attention to the usage of "spinster". The snark I intended came off as chiding. Plus, my post cited the recent philosophy poll in a way that was pedantic at best.
If there was anything of redeeming value, I would have left it up rather than blanking the post pre-retraction...
Downvoting you for attempting to abuse my vote.