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by sirtaj
2041 days ago
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> Society is best when people think about how their worst actions effect other people. In our day to day lives, I use this as a basic character test of both individuals and societies. People fail this inductive-thinking test - "If everyone did what I am about to do, would I like to live in the society that would result?" - all the time. Signs of failure range from lack of civic sense (litter, rash driving etc) all the way to climate change and social collapse. |
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I think about it differently. I look at things and think "is this system set up so that it is easier to do the right thing than the wrong thing?" I think it is easy to look at problems and point out individual "moral failings" as the cause, but data doesn't really support that in the big picture in most cases. There is a reason you don’t see trash on the ground at Disneyland. They put trash cans everywhere because they want it to be easier to throw your garbage away than litter. Driving safety has improved due to system changes, not individual actions. Regulations on safety devices, enforcement of road laws, research into road/signal/signage design to promote safety and discourage poor driving, etc. Climate change is far and away an industrial problem where producing greenhouse gases are almost a complete externality for corporations. It isn’t people taking long showers or using straws, it is corporate byproducts that they have no incentive to reduce because they have no profit motivation because those things do not cost them anything.