6 ms·

So much this! The top 1% outperform significantly everyone else in every scenario. The app store? Twitch streamers? Youtube videos? Facebook pages? Athletes?

So much this! The top 1% outperform significantly everyone else in every scenario. The app store? Twitch streamers? Youtube videos? Facebook pages? Athletes? It's a natural phenomenon. If you fight it, you are practically fighting nature. You don't fight earthquakes by trying to stop them. You prepare and help the affected instead.

sangnoir 11y ago
> The top 1% outperform significantly everyone else in every scenario. The app store? Twitch streamers? Youtube videos? Facebook pages? Athletes? No-one likes cheats - even elite athletes are not allowed to gain an unfair advantage via doping. 20th century Robber-barons might have been an equally 'natural phenomenon', until legislation caught up with their unfair advantages.
- TheLogothete 11y ago
  The top 1% does not have to cheat to outperform the rest. Did you read the last paragraphs of the article?
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    > The top 1% does not have to cheat to outperform the rest. Did you read the last paragraphs of the article? I read it. The penultimate paragraph suggests that they do cheat. Did you read it? Heck, even the title is "Make elites compete", you could not have missed that.
    - TheLogothete 11y ago
      You are clearly biased against rich people. The sibling's comment are my thoughts exactly. Not every cheat is rich and everyone who is rich cheats. If somebody cheats - punish him, whether he is rich or not is irrelevant. Don't make different rules for different groups. What would happen if we swap wealth for race? I did not point out the last paragraph to be cheeky. Less Marx, more Adam Smith.
      - sangnoir 11y ago
        > You are clearly biased against rich people This is not true...well, I'm no more biased than the article under discussion. I'm simply quoting the article and what I got from it.
- sportanova 11y ago
  Who's "cheating"? If they're actually cheating, let's take away their unfair advantage. But let's not fuck over everyone making over $x because we don't like how some percentage of that group do it This vague idea (which seems to be incredibly popular) that "everyone with more money than me took advantage of poors and cheated" is unfounded
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    I could have been clearer. I did not mean to suggest that everyone in the 1% cheat, but merely stating that whatever natural/inate advantages that the top 1% possess can be (and frequently is) enhanced using less than legal/ethical means - whether it's sports, business, or wealth. Society needs to address this unfair advantage (analogous to doping). This is not a new idea, the penultimate paragraph addresses this directly by quoting Smith: Smith warned against local trade associations which were inevitably conspiring “against the public…to raise prices,” and “restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than would otherwise…occasion a very important inequality” between occupations.
    - sportanova 11y ago
      The operating assumption seems to be "not all 1%ers cheat, but most of them do". I don't see evidence for that. My other problem with these arguments is that they seem to point to some bad behavior, and the solution is usually higher taxes, that punish everyone, not just those supposedly engaging in the bad behavior.

sangnoir 11y ago

> The top 1% outperform significantly everyone else in every scenario. The app store? Twitch streamers? Youtube videos? Facebook pages? Athletes? No-one likes cheats - even elite athletes are not allowed to gain an unfair advantage via doping. 20th century Robber-barons might have been an equally 'natural phenomenon', until legislation caught up with their unfair advantages.

TheLogothete 11y ago
The top 1% does not have to cheat to outperform the rest. Did you read the last paragraphs of the article?
- sangnoir 11y ago
  > The top 1% does not have to cheat to outperform the rest. Did you read the last paragraphs of the article? I read it. The penultimate paragraph suggests that they do cheat. Did you read it? Heck, even the title is "Make elites compete", you could not have missed that.
  - TheLogothete 11y ago
    You are clearly biased against rich people. The sibling's comment are my thoughts exactly. Not every cheat is rich and everyone who is rich cheats. If somebody cheats - punish him, whether he is rich or not is irrelevant. Don't make different rules for different groups. What would happen if we swap wealth for race? I did not point out the last paragraph to be cheeky. Less Marx, more Adam Smith.
    - sangnoir 11y ago
      > You are clearly biased against rich people This is not true...well, I'm no more biased than the article under discussion. I'm simply quoting the article and what I got from it.
sportanova 11y ago
Who's "cheating"? If they're actually cheating, let's take away their unfair advantage. But let's not fuck over everyone making over $x because we don't like how some percentage of that group do it This vague idea (which seems to be incredibly popular) that "everyone with more money than me took advantage of poors and cheated" is unfounded
- sangnoir 11y ago
  I could have been clearer. I did not mean to suggest that everyone in the 1% cheat, but merely stating that whatever natural/inate advantages that the top 1% possess can be (and frequently is) enhanced using less than legal/ethical means - whether it's sports, business, or wealth. Society needs to address this unfair advantage (analogous to doping). This is not a new idea, the penultimate paragraph addresses this directly by quoting Smith: Smith warned against local trade associations which were inevitably conspiring “against the public…to raise prices,” and “restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than would otherwise…occasion a very important inequality” between occupations.
  - sportanova 11y ago
    The operating assumption seems to be "not all 1%ers cheat, but most of them do". I don't see evidence for that. My other problem with these arguments is that they seem to point to some bad behavior, and the solution is usually higher taxes, that punish everyone, not just those supposedly engaging in the bad behavior.