Kant and the Impartial Observer

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Kant's categorical imperative is a way to get people to morally overcome the free riding problem. Adam smith wanted you to think about your behavior as if someone were watching you, and he says that's the way we actually do behave. Sohat: I spent all my life dealing with tale events, and there's a very simple property to probabily distributions,. particularly when ther isymmetric.

Nassim Taleb of NYU-Poly talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper (with Constantine Sandis) on the morality and effectiveness of "skin in the game." When decision makers have skin in the game--when they share in the costs and benefits of their decisions that might affect others--they are more likely to make prudent decisions than in cases where decision-makers can impose costs on others. Taleb sees skin in the game as not just a useful policy concept but a moral imperative. The conversation closes with some observations on the power of expected value for evaluating predictions along with Taleb's thoughts on economists who rarely have skin in the game when they make forecasts or take policy positions.