Scott Alexander argues strongly for basic income over basic jobs guarantees, citing numerous advantages of basic income and potential pitfalls of basic jobs programs. Longer summary

Scott Alexander argues strongly against the idea of a basic jobs guarantee, preferring a basic income guarantee instead. He presents 11 main arguments: 1) Basic jobs don't help the disabled, 2) They don't help caretakers, 3) They don't help parents, 4) Jobs are actually a big cause of poverty, 5) Basic jobs may not pay for themselves through useful work, 6) It's hard to deal with bad workers in a basic jobs system, 7) It's hard for workers to escape bad workplaces, 8) Basic income could fix private industry while basic jobs could destroy it, 9) Basic income supports personal development while basic jobs prevent it, 10) Basic income puts everyone on the same side while basic jobs preserve class divisions, and 11) Work itself is often unpleasant and meaningless. He then addresses counterarguments, including concerns about UBI's effects, the need for work to provide meaning, and the potential benefits of public works. Scott concludes that while basic jobs might be better than nothing, they risk hijacking the utopian potential of basic income and perpetuating many problems of the current system. Shorter summary

Scott reflects on his hasty utopian science post, viewing it as a success for prompting Robin Hanson to expand on academic prediction markets. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reflects on his previous post about utopian science, acknowledging it was somewhat rushed and not fully developed. However, he considers it successful because it prompted Robin Hanson to elaborate on his concepts regarding academic prediction markets. The post is very brief, mainly serving to link to and comment on these two articles. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander proposes a 'Thrive/Survive Theory' explaining political ideologies as optimizations for different environments, with rightism for survival and leftism for thriving in safety. Longer summary

Scott Alexander proposes a 'Thrive/Survive Theory' to explain the political spectrum. He suggests that rightism is optimized for surviving unsafe environments, while leftism is optimized for thriving in safe environments. The post explores how this theory explains various aspects of political ideologies, including their stability across cultures, correlation with other preferences, and the gradual leftward drift of society over time. Scott uses thought experiments involving zombie apocalypses and utopian futures to illustrate how different environments might shape political views. He also discusses how this theory relates to developmental psychology and historical trends. Shorter summary