unmet needs

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx 12/05/00 02:07PM >>>
I don't see this. Why does it diminish my quality of living as a lover of
seminbars that there are opportunities as a listener to symphonies?

(((((((((

CB: I didn't say it diminishes your standard of living. I said there are diminishing returns to the quality of living, a drop in the rate of increase. In other words, you claim there are ever increasing returns to the quality of living by ever increasing needs. But there are not ever increasing returns. There are diminshing returns. So, what you say is not true: It is not true that an ever increasing number of needs ( innovation as you define it)  means an ever increasing standard of living.

((((((((((


And
while choosing may be hard, and and the hardness a disvalue, why is it an
improvement to say, No More Seminars?

(((((((((

CB: I didn't propose  no more seminars. What I am saying is that to set up society such that we are ever trying to increase the number of needs is not the best way, because the returns from it taper off.

And I didn't say anything about the hardness of choosing. I just said the fact of having a choice is not a marker of freedom, as the bourgeoisie like to push.

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 There, now you don't have to choose! I
agree taht there is no single dimension on which to measure standards of
living or even the overall goodness of life.

((((((((((

CB: Specifically, here, the notion of constantly finding new needs through innovation is not a standard to measure the quality of life of society.



>
>
> >>> jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx 12/05/00 11:07AM >>>
>Jon Elster made this sort of point. It's fair enough, but it just shows
>that
>in rich society with a profusion of needs, we need to make choices. Is that
>so bad?
>
>((((((((((
>
>CB: The claim is not that it is so bad. It is that there are diminishing
>returns to the quality of living of individuals from your standard of ever
>increasing the number of needs in society as a whole.  If I have to choose
>between needs, then the total amount of needs in society being great does
>not benefit me. And no, I don't think of the opportunity and the
>REQUIREMENT that I choose as a sign of my freedom.
>
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