Doubtingthomas Philosophy Topic

[doubtingthomas]

Continuing the discussion from Is The World Good?:

@Elliot

The elites are not under control and they make it hard to improve much in the world. They even make it hard to start a small business or build new housing in areas with housing shortages.

I think it’d be bad to help the elites. Did the scientists who gave them the atomic bomb do something wrong? Maybe. It’s worth considering. Similarly, I basically wouldn’t want any important job for the government or its military. Being their janitor would be fine because there are plenty of other people who can do that job, but selling them my mind would be bad.

The problem isn’t just the government. I’d be very wary of helping Google or Coca Cola. Every big corporation is highly suspect.

Can you do a comprehensive analysis and share a more complete picture? To me it looks like you’re cherry picking bad stuff. Can you also share examples of elites trying to do good stuff and making things better?

Here are some examples I know off the top of my head of elites doing good stuff:

1. Cost Plus Drugs - Wikipedia
2. Breakthrough Energy - Wikipedia
3. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Wikipedia

I think it’s an error to make such a generalized statement like it would be bad to help the elites. It’s not like elites is one uniform thing and all of them are same and helping one of them would result in same bad things as working for the worst ones.

You like Apple right but not Coca Cola or Google? So you’d recommend working for Apple right? Can you list some other companies you think are good?