On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Richard Baker<[email protected]> wrote:
> John said:
>
>> Say I have two $1 bills. I could choose to go to McDonald's and buy a
>> burger and fries.
>>
>> Now someone takes one of my dollars. Now I can only buy a burger, or
>> fries, but not both. My choices have been limited. My freedom to
>> choose has been limited.
>>
>> That is obvious.
>
> Yes, but it's not the whole story.
It is not my whole post, either, since you cut the quote off early.
> Suppose that Alice has two $1 bills and
> she could choose to buy a burger, fries or a shake, each of which costs $1,
> and further suppose that Bob has no money. Then Alice could choose from one
> of 36 possible futures (as each dollar could supply one of {burger, fries,
> shake} to one of {Alice,Bob}, so she could choose, for example, a burger for
> herself and fries for Bob or a burger and fries for herself).
I count 28. Two dollars can be spent in 6 ways (BB, FF, SS, BF, BS,
FS). First consider the ways where one person has 2 items: that makes
12 (6 x 2) possibilities. Next, consider ways where no person has 2
items: there are 4 possibilities for Alice (including nothing), and
independently, 4 for Bob, making a subtotal of 16 (4 x 4). Then the
total is 16 + 12 = 28. Or if both dollars must be spent, then the
total is 21 (12 + 3 x 3).
I suspect you double-counted the 9 possibilities where each person
gets 1 item, and also the 6 possibilities where 1 person gets two
different items. 36 - 9 - 6 = 21.
> Suppose George insists that Alice gives $1 to Bob. Then Alice can't choose
> any of the 36 possible futures.
28
> The most she can do is to pick one of six "partial futures",
7, if you include not spending the buck
> The outcome is that Alice and Bob collectively choose one of
> the 36 total futures.
28, but as you indicate with "partial", this is an uncertain 28
compared to having one person choose with two dollars, since no
outcome can be guaranteed.
> Alice's freedom has been curtailed a bit, but Bob has
> been given some freedom in compensation.
Also, if each person chooses one of 7 uniformly, the 28 outcomes will
not be uniform: for example, Bob with 2 burgers will be half as likely
as each with a burger. It seems that the outcome will be less
predictable, more randomized.
> I guess that you would argue that Alice's two $1 bills are hers, and that if
> she wants to use them to give Bob some freedom she could choose to give one
> or both to him but that George isn't justified in forcing her to. I further
> guess that Nick would argue that it's more fair for George to make Alice
> give the dollar to Bob as the gain in freedom for Bob outweighs the loss of
> freedom for Alice.
Do you think Nick would argue the same thing (Alice must give everyone
a dollar) if Alice had $10 and 9 others had no dollars? What if Alice
had $20 and ten others had $2 each? What if, instead of dollars, we
had coupons for a medical treatment to extend life by a year? Must
Alice give up years of her life? What about contracts to provide 1
year of manual labor to XYZ corporation? If Alice was liable for 2 of
those contracts, and Bob was liable for none, must Bob take 1 of the
contracts? What would you guess Nick would argue?
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