Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in On the Brain Drain Refrain

Re: On the Brain Drain Refrain

Matt Tievsky — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:12:52 -0000

Chris: "How can you have as much moral responsibility for people that you do not have as much political authority over?"

Maybe you don't. But my--and perhaps Will's--response is that you have the RIGHT to treat aliens as well as (if not better than) your countrymen. Thus, restricting immigration to effect protectionism is wrong.

Re: On the Brain Drain Refrain

mk — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:17:44 -0000

A fairly off-the-cuff response:

A democratic government isn't obligated to become undemocratic and flout the will of its people to help those in other countries. But the voters should think of the poor and not just themselves-- once the voters do this, the government does the same as a byproduct. Does that address your concern?

In practice, no one is totally utilitarian or altruistic; everyone privileges themselves and those who they know. So in practice this amounts to: lean more heavily on altruism/utilitarianism, and less heavily on self-interest and local interest.

So now that means I'm backtracking on really demanding everyone be a straight-up utilitarian. Maybe the optimum is some weighted average of solipsism and utilitarianism. Darn ethical morasses.

Re: On the Brain Drain Refrain

Chris — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:46:12 -0000

How can you have as much moral responsibility for people that you do not have as much political authority over?

Re: On the Brain Drain Refrain

mk — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:08:56 -0000

Interesting. I agree that the empirical question here about well-being trumps (as it always does) any proceduralist or deontological considerations.

It seems plausible that a guest-worker program would be the best of both worlds-- cheaper labor for rich countries, and a stream of temporary emigrants who return to poorer countries to improve things back home.

Also, many immigrants come here to make money to send back home (I live in an immigrant-heavy neighborhood and there are tons of places to wire money). That helps things back home. It's not a simple question of abandonment.

But, we should be wary about the brain drain question, as it too makes some intuitive sense. We should see how the empirical data plays out, and we should make our ultimate decision based on the criteria of additive utilitarianism combined with diminishing marginal utility. (help the poorest).