Many of you know that I have a second blog titled “TheMoneyIllusion. Yesterday, I took over that blog and started another site, titled The Pursuit of Happiness:
URL: scottsumner.substack.com/
Speaking of happiness, here is a question to consider:
What public 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 non-realistic thinking policies involving like-minded creatures as “utilitarian monsters”; I am interested to know which one real world policies he argues despite the fact that he believes those policies would make the world a happier place.
Perhaps you will find an example of a real policy that I should argue against, which will convince me to abandon my utilitarianism.
PS. Please don’t tell me this is the wrong question. It’s a question that interests me.
PPS. The Straussian reading of this post is that utilitarianism, properly understood, does not provide clear answers when deciding what public policies are best. We are like ships sailing in a dense fog. (The same can be said of Bayesian analysis.)
Here is a picture of Jeremy Bentham:
Source link