You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

ciphergoth comments on Equality and natalism - Less Wrong Discussion

10 [deleted] 24 October 2012 03:53PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (105)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 25 October 2012 12:21:43PM *  2 points [-]

But the worst option is many poor people having the "meh, the tomorrow does not really exist" attitude.

"A conclusion is the place where one stopped thinking."

If the poor have that attitude, why do they have it? If it's the culture, where did the culture come from?

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 25 October 2012 01:44:59PM *  2 points [-]

Some poor people are simply people with very low intelligence. Not low enough to be in some institution, but low enough to do stupid things that a) make them poor, and b) make them unlikely to use contraceptives however free and accessible, even in the case they don't really want to have children.

Possible solution: Provide free food to people. With contraceptives. Make this fact known. Expect outrage (not from the people who will eat the food, but from people who will use this opportunity to signal their moral superiority over you).

Some people have inherited a culture that does not value education and long-term planning. Historically, this culture came to my country centuries ago from a different place (where perhaps, in given time, it was not as disastrous as it is here and now). But looking at individuals, this culture comes from the previous generations.

Possible solution: If I had one, I would be going for my Nobel price now, instead of commenting on LessWrong. The solution would have to be not just realistic, but also politically acceptable, which is almost impossible given the connotations. (You know who else proposed solutions? Nazis did.)

If we remove the "politically acceptable" part, then a possible solution would be mandatory education for one generation. And by mandatory education I do not mean the usual mandatory school attendance, which we already have, and which is largely without an effect for given groups, because they easily undermine it. The pressure to learn from school would have to be greater than the pressure to not learn from home. Which would require some serious brainwashing and possibly isolation from home for longer periods of time. (Note: The "brainwashing" could be realized gently, e.g. through movies that depict smart and diligent heroes, and stupid contemptible villains.)