[13] Government Corruption

Title Card

YouTube Link

Status

Researching

Transcription

Air Date

Dec 5, 2023

Target: 30-45 minutes

Script

Intro

<<dual screen, background visible>> Shift+1

ZFi: GM and welcome to Moloch Traps, our new podcast here at From Aa to Zzz. I’m ZFi, this Zombie Shepherd, and we’re excited to be bringing you this new show in collaboration with BanklessDAO and its Audio/Visual team. To be clear, opinions in this series expressed by either of us are our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of BanklessDAO at large.

This week, we will continue to study and discuss excerpts from the "Meditations on Moloch" essay, written by Scott Alexander. The essay provides examples of multi-polar traps and delves into various instances from history, biology, and economics to illustrate how competition often results in collective harm.

In today’s episode we’ll discuss the concept of Government Corruption. Let’s start with Alexander’s words on this example.

Segment 2 — Government Corruption

ZFi:

(reading from Meditations)

13. Government corruption. I don’t know of anyone who really thinks, in a principled way, that corporate welfare is a good idea. But the government still manages to spend somewhere around (depending on how you calculate it) $100 billion dollars a year on it – which for example is three times the amount they spend on health care for the needy. Everyone familiar with the problem has come up with the same easy solution: stop giving so much corporate welfare. Why doesn’t it happen?

Government are competing against one another to get elected or promoted. And suppose part of optimizing for electability is optimizing campaign donations from corporations – or maybe it isn’t, but officials think it is. Officials who try to mess with corporate welfare may lose the support of corporations and be outcompeted by officials who promise to keep it intact.

So although from a god’s-eye-view everyone knows that eliminating corporate welfare is the best solution, each individual official’s personal incentives push her to maintain it.

Segment 3 —  Open Discussion

<<dual screen, full frame>> Shift+2

Zombie Shepherd notes:

ZFi notes:

Conclusion

<<dual screen with background visible>> Shift+1

Zombie Shepherd: (start and then hand off as appropriate)

Summary

What would YOU do? @listener?

Outro

Zombie Shepherd: 

Thanks for watching today’s episode of Moloch Traps. We hope you enjoy this series. As always, none of what we say is legal or financial advice, and we encourage listeners to do their own research in these areas before making any related decisions.

If you find our content informational, educational, or entertaining, and would like to support us, please collect these episodes on Lens. 18% of proceeds go back to BanklessDAO, 2% supports Lenstube for hosting our videos, and the rest helps to make From Aa to Zzz productions possible.

To stay on top of our weekly series, subscribe to us on the BanklessDAO YouTube. Don’t forget to like and comment while you’re there!

We’ll see you next time, frens!

Clickbait Titles and Descriptions

[13] Government Corruption

Title Card

YouTube Link

Status

Researching

Transcription

Air Date

Dec 5, 2023

Target: 30-45 minutes

Script

Intro

<<dual screen, background visible>> Shift+1

ZFi: GM and welcome to Moloch Traps, our new podcast here at From Aa to Zzz. I’m ZFi, this Zombie Shepherd, and we’re excited to be bringing you this new show in collaboration with BanklessDAO and its Audio/Visual team. To be clear, opinions in this series expressed by either of us are our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of BanklessDAO at large.

This week, we will continue to study and discuss excerpts from the "Meditations on Moloch" essay, written by Scott Alexander. The essay provides examples of multi-polar traps and delves into various instances from history, biology, and economics to illustrate how competition often results in collective harm.

In today’s episode we’ll discuss the concept of Government Corruption. Let’s start with Alexander’s words on this example.

Segment 2 — Government Corruption

ZFi:

(reading from Meditations)

13. Government corruption. I don’t know of anyone who really thinks, in a principled way, that corporate welfare is a good idea. But the government still manages to spend somewhere around (depending on how you calculate it) $100 billion dollars a year on it – which for example is three times the amount they spend on health care for the needy. Everyone familiar with the problem has come up with the same easy solution: stop giving so much corporate welfare. Why doesn’t it happen?

Government are competing against one another to get elected or promoted. And suppose part of optimizing for electability is optimizing campaign donations from corporations – or maybe it isn’t, but officials think it is. Officials who try to mess with corporate welfare may lose the support of corporations and be outcompeted by officials who promise to keep it intact.

So although from a god’s-eye-view everyone knows that eliminating corporate welfare is the best solution, each individual official’s personal incentives push her to maintain it.

Segment 3 —  Open Discussion

<<dual screen, full frame>> Shift+2

Zombie Shepherd notes:

ZFi notes:

Conclusion

<<dual screen with background visible>> Shift+1

Zombie Shepherd: (start and then hand off as appropriate)

Summary

What would YOU do? @listener?

Outro

Zombie Shepherd: 

Thanks for watching today’s episode of Moloch Traps. We hope you enjoy this series. As always, none of what we say is legal or financial advice, and we encourage listeners to do their own research in these areas before making any related decisions.

If you find our content informational, educational, or entertaining, and would like to support us, please collect these episodes on Lens. 18% of proceeds go back to BanklessDAO, 2% supports Lenstube for hosting our videos, and the rest helps to make From Aa to Zzz productions possible.

To stay on top of our weekly series, subscribe to us on the BanklessDAO YouTube. Don’t forget to like and comment while you’re there!

We’ll see you next time, frens!

Clickbait Titles and Descriptions