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%gedank[e88,jmc]		Social gedanken experiments

A social gedanken experiment involves a relaxation of some constraints
that exist in reality.  The object of the experiment is to
give an idea of whether an effort to relax them would be good
or whether a possible existing trend to relax them would be good
or bad.

An article on social gedanken experiments might be a good style for
expressing some of my social ideas.

1. What if U.S. and other developed countries' immigration restrictions
were dropped and instant transporters were developed so that the
whole world had a single labor market and also there was a single
goods market?

Clearly some people would increase their standard of living and some would
reduce it.  Americans might all lose, but some would lose more than
others.  American barbers might find their standard of living reduced to
that of Indian or Chinese barbers.  American professors and other
researchers would encounter some competition but it wouldn't be so severe.
In the first place we're better than Indian or Chinese professors, we have
valuable ongoing projects, and we're more numerous, so that any averaging
would more bring them up to our income instead of bringing us down to
theirs.

Of course, if the transporter developed there would be resistance to
dropping the restrictions.  Even if immigration restrictions and
commuting to the U.S. by foreigners were prevented, many of us would
go to India for haircuts.

This reminds me of my old idea of running telephone reservation bureaus
in India.

2. The \$100K goodie.  see other files.

3. What if pro-life women could take over the fetuses of women
wanting abortions?  See outgoing message 1988 Aug 19 to su-etc.