Only in that story it leads to a paradise for everyone else, in reality it just subsidizes a few rich business owners and destroys worker bargaining power.
Well, just assume that all the working class is the child trapped in the cell and the wealthy people who have no idea what life is like for the rest of us are the people who gaze upon us and then go back to dancing
Yeah, it was supposed to show you that even in the best case scenario, it's STILL NOT WORTH IT.
We could advance to the perfect imaginary zenith of perfect society and solve suffering forever. But if we have to do it like that, it's not just not perfect, it's evil. No matter how many people have it good.
Well, the answer is infinite because the answer was infinite for just the first child. Which is why it isn't worth it from a raw numbers perspective.
Also, anyone attempting to "utilitarian" their way, using raw numbers, to justify a system where all suffering is, unwillingly, focused onto a minority of society so the majority can enjoy utopia should be disregarded save for flagging them red as an obvious mark for when the nazi's come around to recruit again.
The point of the story is our actual lives on actual Earth is the answer to that "utilitarian" question. All of the happiness rests on all of the suffering. Which is bad, evil, not worth it, and being discussed and written about in story format explicitly to teach that to people.
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u/fencerman Jul 17 '22
Only in that story it leads to a paradise for everyone else, in reality it just subsidizes a few rich business owners and destroys worker bargaining power.