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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

For those wondering how Robin would define "economic welfare", he gave one answer in his paper: it's whatever our elected representatives will define it to be. That definition will be used for the purpose of settling bets in futarchy, and therefore will be what futarchy will try to maximize as a system.

But since dead creatures and those who might exist some day can't vote, our elected representatives are likely to neglect their interests. I wonder if Robin's reluctance to specify exactly how he would prefer to measure economic welfare is due to political savvy, or because he doesn't know what he wants either. Probably a bit of both.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Robin: It seems to me that for at least some definitions of "might exist some day" for every preference there is an equal and opposite preference for no net effect. How do you define "might exist some day" such that this is not the case?

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