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Oct 25, 2022Liked by Richard Y Chappell

Great post and just clearly true

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“ There’s just no utilitarian excuse to force people to do things when you could instead incentivize them ”

So when is it that we can’t incentivize them? Maybe when we're too poor? Or they don’t agree with our brilliant ideas? In dire emergencies? When we absolutely have to share something?

I should admit that I actually agree with this sentiment. It isn’t very popular though, is it?

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I don't think that abortion is merely a trade-off between now-vs-later. Abortion reduces fertility to some extent I would think. From a total view, it would matter how much the potential people's lives matter relative to the other costs of reducing the right to choose. I don't think it would be optimal policy, but restricting abortion seems at least like a plausible policy that can be implemented. I know you don't share the total view, but I think we are underproducing to a large extent.

Potential children give birth to other potential children which give birth to other potential children. Letting a handful of women have abortions in the year 100 because they didn't feel ready would likely improve their lives, but it could mean tens of millions of people not existing today. It is hard to imagine any consideration for a handful of people which could be swamped by the existence tens of millions of people. My numbers probably aren't exact, but you get the point. If we take the view that the tens of millions of people shouldn't have been born because of the quality of their life, we should switch and advocate for forced abortions. This is from a total viewpoint of course, which I know you reject.

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