Interview
Glen Weyl on radical institutional reforms that make capitalism and democracy work better
- A coordinated social movement integrating economic theory, philosophy, and sociology is expected to drive fundamental social change in the medium term through the "Radical Exchange" organization's work in ideas, technology, activism, government, and arts.
- The "Radical Exchange" conference is scheduled for the weekend of March 22nd to 24th in Detroit, featuring speakers such as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.
- The movement's job board currently lists 199 positions, with 76 added in the last month, and subscribers are advised to check it every two weeks to avoid missing deadlines.
- Global warming, power concentration in network industries, and insurance market issues are attributed to increasing returns to scale, which renders standard economic textbooks intellectually bankrupt due to their reliance on decreasing returns assumptions.
- Current models of public goods funding are expected to be deficient by a factor of roughly 1/N, while the Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax (CoST) proposal is predicted to fund dramatic inequality reduction by making two-thirds of private wealth common property and potentially financing government through property rents.
- Blockchain data structures are characterized as a "dead end" for supporting selective human reputation, and proof of work consensus mechanisms are described as flawed due to energy waste.
- Quadratic voting is forecasted to replace standard voting protocols and online reputation systems in the coming years, potentially allowing voice expression to supersede income as a primary economic metric.
- The Liberal Radicalism matching formula is expected to solve public goods problems more effectively than current models, with optimal parameters varying based on whether participants act selfishly or altruistically.
- The long-term application of quadratic voting is anticipated to address global public goods like climate change, though this outcome is expected to take longer than other applications.
- A coherent liberal vision is deemed necessary to prevent society from drifting toward nationalism and statism similar to the 1930s, a shift currently fueled by inequality, falling growth rates, and isolation among the alienated 5-10% of the global population.
- Alternative solutions must emerge organically through small-scale experiments to avoid the destabilizing rise of far-right movements and neoreactionary tendencies, which are viewed as natural drifts for socially isolated individuals or groups.
- The effective altruism movement's "high modernism" is predicted to erode democracy by assuming exclusive access to truth, though it has evolved toward long-termism and catastrophe prevention through broader social engagement.
- The movement has observed surprising enthusiasm from the African-American community, with participants being a majority of women, contrary to prior expectations.
- Personal growth and challenges are expected to be constant in non-academic roles, with individuals needing to adapt to tasks where they feel largely incompetent initially.
- Future social organization is predicted to resemble an "anarcho-syndicalist" vision where emergent, morphing organizations replace traditional corporations and states.