271–280 of 291 posts
> During the pandemic, he partnered with local restaurants to sell “Beast Burgers”, a proprietary burger recipe that any kitchen could make and sell with his branding, and in interviews he speaks proudly of restaurants that would have gone out of business without the interest Beast Burgers provided.
No. He inked a deal with a kitchen arbitrage venture.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/dining/ghost-kitchen-mrbe...
The $24 burger was...not good.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but the difference here is that the mission is inherently unnecessary. Consider the JFK speech and what went before choosing to go to the moon: "But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?" Perhaps we've conquered all the naturally "hard" things and are left only with artificial chal…
All missions are kind of unnecessary. Youtubes entire mission is unnecessary, it's nothing but entertainment and some education. Mr. Beasts videos clearly provide a lot of people with joy considering how many subscribers he has. Hard for me to say he's not providing value to those people.
Maybe we could say “all human desire is ok, but behaviors can be good or bad”
> "Whenever I watch these videos I’m awed and scared at the lengths to which humans in the twenty-first century will go to slurp up the drips of unimaginable wealth that the algorithm leaks out through Mr. Beast." That's it, isn't it? It's the exact opposite of dignity of labour: it's compensation for degradation. The "voluntary" part is just highlighting how willing people are to trade in unnecessary misery for the…
"Compensation for degradation" defines most kinds of labor. To labor means to suffer, and compensation is the other word for salary. So it's not certain this is the "exact opposite" of labor; maybe it's its ulterior incarnation.
I disagree with this intrinsically.
Certainly, some labor is suffering, but what it actually means is to put forth effort. To some people, any effort put forth is suffering, but that's certainly not always the case. Laboring on behalf of something you believe in deeply can be joyful. If you really have never experienced this, I urge you to change your habits and try to find a way to do things that you can take joy in.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. I'd agree it's unethical only if their cognition was compromised (meaning he wasn't capable of analyzing the costs and benefi…
> How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. It's unethical to ask people to perform an action which you know they would never agree to if it wasn't for an imbalance of…
"It's unethical to ask people to perform an action which you know they would never agree to if it wasn't for an imbalance of power or financial pressure/incentives."
Consider the reductio ad absurdum. Almost everyone has a job because of financial pressures. Even upper middle class people feel pressure to secure themselves for old age and unforeseen circumstances. Is almost every job unethical? If yes, then you're saying that our species functioning is unethical, which is an absurdity. If no, then you don't believe it yourself.
"Harvey Weinstein"
A third thing: the attempts themselves were a sort of menacing assault which subtracted utility from the person, which they didn't agree to be subjected to upfront.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> No matter how degrading, how awful their experience is Correct, as long as my above assumptions are not violated. That is, no surprises post-contract signing, and so on[1]. Your actions are a net benefit to them. It can't be unethical to benefit someone, unless we're operating under a non-utilitarian moral framework. I'd argue it's unethical to not provide them that terrible job, if the only alternative is for you…
> I'd argue it's unethical to not provide them that terrible job, Then why would it make you sad to provide a family member or loved one with that terrible job, say fighting homeless people for the entertainment of those who find their pathos entertaining? Why wouldn't you feel great, providing them with that job that is a net benefit to them? I mean, maybe not as good as if you were able to just give them a gift, bu…
"Then why would it make you sad to provide a family member or loved one with that terrible job"
If they needed the money, I would feel better getting them to fight for it (because after all, that's better than them dying of cancer or whatever the money is for!) than I would not giving them the money, but I'd feel bad in both situations, because all I'd want to do is maximally help them, and either of these options isn't that.
"I think if everyone acted according to your principles, there would be a net gain in human misery."
"If I had realized you thought it was literally impossible for any employer to behave unethically toward an employee"
Seems I haven't been missing a thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People who have financial need aren’t able to clearly decline and have agency over their decision. Asking someone who supports a family if they will degrade themselves for $500k if not really a fair question and people will say yes. Except that this isn't targeting people who have financial need. At the prices we're talking about, quite a lot of people will find it a good deal. And "degrading" might be a strong wor…
> Except that this isn't targeting people who have financial need. I don’t think it’s fair to say that. The person who “won” the chance has two young kids and a spouse. I’m fairly sure he really needs $500k. If he’s like a typical person he has student loans, bills and lots of debt. It would be kind of perverse to have someone compete who didn’t really need the money. If you ask a random human to degrade themself for…
The issue with your line of thought is that it leads to concluding that most jobs are unethical.
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I really try to block them but somehow Youtube keeps finding new ones to put in my feed every single day. How can I tell Youtube: * I will never watch a Mr. Beast video * I will never watch a music video * I will never watch a sports video * I will never watch a video about cars * I will never watch a video about Minecraft, or any video game at all
Vigilence. Don't show me this video. Tell me why? Don't like the video. Not interested. Also, subscribe and like videos you do enjoy, not only for the content, but the style of delivery. Takes roughly 2 months to start not being a cesspit. Also: have an account, and remove garbage from your history if you watched it - and watch out, those auto playing shorts are going into your history. Hide the shelf, in app, or wit…