On second thought, strike my second paragraph (in the 10:08 am comment).
I shouldn't have tinkered with the (well-known?) example I first heard. It's a coke machine on a military base that introduced a price increase by dispensing cokes with a lower probability rather than with a nominal price increase. To the soldiers that live and work there, the machine is equivalent to one with a nominal price increase. The philosopher's question is whether this machine is fair to someone who is just passing through, someone for whom there is no long run.
What I mean to suggest by the example is that the chance deals you offer people do not have a long-run, and your scheme of rational choice is hard to justify without a long-run, no? Can you say something about this, Eliezer?
On second thought, strike my second paragraph (in the 10:08 am comment).
I shouldn't have tinkered with the (well-known?) example I first heard. It's a coke machine on a military base that introduced a price increase by dispensing cokes with a lower probability rather than with a nominal price increase. To the soldiers that live and work there, the machine is equivalent to one with a nominal price increase. The philosopher's question is whether this machine is fair to someone who is just passing through, someone for whom there is no long run.
What I mean to suggest by the example is that the chance deals you offer people do not have a long-run, and your scheme of rational choice is hard to justify without a long-run, no? Can you say something about this, Eliezer?