Many of you know that I have a second blog titled “TheMoneyIllusion. Yesterday I closed that blog and started a replacement, titled The pursuit of happiness:
URL: scottsumner.substack.com/
Speaking of happiness, here’s a question to think about:
What government policies do you oppose, even though you believe they would make the world a happier place in the long run?
I’m not interested in unrealistic hypothetical policies involving imaginative creatures such as ‘utility monsters’; I would like to know which one actual policy in the real world you oppose it despite the fact that you believe these policies would make the world a happier place.
Perhaps here you will find an example of an actual policy that I should also oppose, which will convince me to abandon my utilitarianism.
P.S. Please don’t tell me this is the wrong question. It is the question that interests me.
PPP. A Straussian interpretation of this article is that utilitarianism, properly understood, does not provide clear answers when deciding which public policies are best. We are like ships sailing through thick fog. (The same could be said for Bayesian analysis.)
Here’s a photo of Jeremy Bentham: