Confidence level/s: very speculative, low
It seems that one of the key optimization problems in democratic decision making is that we often have little incentive to vote for policies that we truly think will increase the public utility.
As per Jess Whittlestone at Vox:
While we have strong social incentives to defend our groups' political beliefs, we have very little incentive to form accurate political beliefs. Most people acknowledge that political issues are incredibly important for society as a whole, but as individuals we’re not necessarily rewarded for how rational and truth-seeking we are about politics.
... (read 682 more words →)Consider the contrast between our beliefs about politics and our beliefs about the physical environment immediately around us. If
What about cultural institutions and assets? If all land belongs to everyone (through rents), what’s to stop someone deciding that the land currently beneath the colosseum in Rome would be better used as the foundations of a supermarket? They outbid a heritage organization, demolish the building and start their supermarket? Is this a loss? Maybe not…