Observe the neutral karma score of my rude comment, at least as of now ... Everybody who upvoted my rude comment, or was tempted to? ...
Now I'm almost sorry I didn't see your comment while it had neutral karma. I believe I wouldn't have upvoted it, but that's exactly the kind of judgement I don't trust.
Okay, I generally have a rule to never upvote comments that speak about their own karma ("it may get me downvoted"), so at least that would have stopped me, if nothing else.
Anyway... such drama... so meta... wow
Lukas' karma for the comment I responded to was quite negative when mine was neutral, as well (down to -5 at one point, if my memory serves me well, which is an iffy prospect). By turning Lukas into the underdog in this conversation (by identifying myself as a bully), I've changed people's perceptions of his comment, as well.
That part wasn't intentional, but in retrospect, it should have been an obvious side effect.
I actually inserted the "it may get me downvoted" as a signal, although I don't recall what the purpose of the signal was, and it's not obvious to me now. Pity.
Cross-posted from my blog here.
One of the greatest successes of mankind over the last few centuries has been the enormous amount of wealth that has been created. Once upon a time virtually everyone lived in grinding poverty; now, thanks to the forces of science, capitalism and total factor productivity, we produce enough to support a much larger population at a much higher standard of living.
EAs being a highly intellectual lot, our preferred form of ritual celebration is charts. The ordained chart for celebrating this triumph of our people is the Declining Share of People Living in Extreme Poverty Chart.
(Source)
However, as a heretic, I think this chart is a mistake. What is so great about reducing the share? We could achieve that by killing all the poor people, but that would not be a good thing! Life is good, and poverty is not death; it is simply better for it to be rich.
As such, I think this is a much better chart. Here we show the world population. Those in extreme poverty are in purple – not red, for their existence is not bad. Those who the wheels of progress have lifted into wealth unbeknownst to our ancestors, on the other hand, are depicted in blue, rising triumphantly.
Long may their rise continue.