(no subject)

[feotakahari]

In the long term, I think utils bottom out a lot lower than they top out, thanks to the hedonic treadmill. If person A gets maximum positive utils from giving B maximum negative utils, it’s a net negative. And I think a lot of the things that give positive utils are more replaceable than things that prevent negative utils. If you have the preference to be safe, you won’t be happy while you’re forced to fight in an arena, but I don’t think someone who watches an arena fight inherently enjoys it more than watching a video game tournament. So my concern is less with making some people really happy, and more with giving people the basics like food and shelter to prevent the worst cases of misery.

This isn’t always as fair as it sounds. I think it’s basically tolerable if some people are rich and some people have enough to get by. But people shouldn’t be rich so long as others are starving.