A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “capitalism”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott examines a prediction about eternal wealth inequality after the Singularity, analyzing potential counterarguments, prevention strategies, and ways to prepare for such a future.
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his capitalism vs charity post, clarifying his argument and addressing various counterpoints and suggested capitalist charities.
Scott Alexander compares the marginal impact of capitalism vs. charity, finding that traditional charity often seems more effective despite capitalism's historical success.
A review of Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle', examining its critique of capitalism and mass media, and relating its ideas to modern issues.
A review of 'Addiction By Design' examines how gambling machines are engineered for addiction and draws parallels to other digital technologies.
Scott Alexander criticizes Ted Chiang's article that compares AI risk to capitalism, arguing that the analogy is flawed and the reasoning behind it is unsound.
Scott Alexander argues against Nathan Robinson's proposal for public cafeterias, instead favoring a system of food vouchers with taxes and subsidies to promote healthy eating.
The post satirically portrays ancient concepts as 'modern pathologies' to criticize aspects of contemporary society.
Scott Alexander reviews Singer's book on Marx, finding Marx's ideas deeply flawed, particularly his refusal to plan for communist governance and his belief in infinitely malleable human nature.
Scott Alexander analyzes Moloch as a metaphor for destructive societal coordination problems, using various examples to show how competing incentives can lead to negative outcomes.
Scott Alexander explores social impact bonds as a potential way to use corporate greed to solve social problems more efficiently than current government programs.
Scott Alexander describes how Amazon Prime has simplified and improved his product selection process, expressing surprise at its effectiveness and reflecting on feeling like an active economic participant.
Scott distinguishes between a statement's denotation (factual content) and connotation (emotional implications), showing how technically true statements can mislead through subtext, and proposes ADBOC as a response technique.