logoalt Hacker News

bigthymerlast Sunday at 2:57 AM2 repliesview on HN

> The truth is Americans do want this

I'm not so sure. Sure, they want the benefits that are provided. However, if being aware of what the costs are to get those benefits apriori, I'm not sure Americans would think the exchange worthwhile.


Replies

trhwaylast Sunday at 3:58 AM

> Sure, they want the benefits that are provided. However, if being aware of what the costs are to get those benefits apriori

no being aware is the key here. For example just on NPR - 40% of American kids think bacon is a plant.

(Don't get me wrong - i intentionally immigrated to US and i like all those benefits of life here. Speaking about the costs of that to the rest of the world - back in Russia i worked for domestic employers as well as for a US based one, and being "exploited" by the US based employer were much nicer than by the domestics.)

tdecklast Sunday at 3:16 AM

While that might certainly be true in the abstract, it isn't worth much.

Most people would probably eat less meat if they knew exactly what was happening to the animals in that process. We'd eat less chocolate if we really thought about the slavery in the chocolate supply chain. We'd not buy certain products because of the environmental impact and working conditions.

But instead we just mostly deliberately avoid learning and thinking about those things. And I count myself as well. The incentives all push Americans to be OK with this.

show 1 reply