Comments on Philosophy, et cetera: Vera on Sustainability and Moral Dupes

Thank you for your thoughts. I still have not foun...

2010-01-13T23:34:42.455-05:00

Thank you for your thoughts. I still have not found a good solution to this, though much interesting stuff has been posted around the web on the related Jevons' paradox. I think tobyord is right... the game needs to change.

This is a very interesting post, but it is worth p...

2008-08-22T07:40:16.663-04:00

This is a very interesting post, but it is worth pointing out that the situation described is a special case of the tragedy of the commons. It is often set up as a multiplayer prisoner's dilemma where individual cooperation is always better for the group, but worse for the individual, in which case the right thing to do is typically to simply cooperate. However, the situation described by Vera is much nastier than this one, and there would be little reason if any to cooperate.

In my view, the climate case is much more plausibly of the first type. If someone deliberately pollutes 1 ton less CO2, what will happen to the expected amount of CO2 produced? It might not have a whole ton decrease, but I find it implausible that it will have no expected decrease. If we really were in such a bad situation, then the appropriate response of an environmentally inclined individual would be to show this was so (with publications etc.) and bring this aspect to urgent attention on a world scale as it would mean that the only way out, short of near-universal multilateral change in strategy, would be to change the structure of the game we are in.

Hi Vera, I think it's worth emphasizing that one i...

2008-08-18T15:26:27.771-04:00

Hi Vera, I think it's worth emphasizing that one is not always a 'dupe' to refrain from exploiting a commons, since -- as you note -- there are some functional commons (at least in small communities) where the cooperative norms are upheld by all.

The broader problem (air pollution, etc.) is political, not moral. We must set up the legal/economic system so that individual incentives match up with the common good. In short: tax those negative externalities!