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I have a pet theory that the level of concern towards social issues for an individual, as a function of wealth and well being, is convex[1]. That is, it is hig

I have a pet theory that the level of concern towards social issues for an individual, as a function of wealth and well being, is convex[1]. That is, it is highest at the extremes : for the poorest and the wealthiest. The former are concerned because of the tacit idea that solving social problems would directly solve theirs. The latter are concerned because as people who don't have direct problems themselves, solving other people's ones would alleviate a repressed guilt feeling, satisfy their ego, or help with the minor annoyance of having to listen to people's whinning. Then I'm guessing most people working in tech industry are right in the middle of this curve, and consequently give the least possible F. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_function

epicureanideal 10y ago
The people in the middle might just be busy working for a living, or working harder to get ahead or stay where they are.
MaxfordAndSons 10y ago
Funny, I'm inclined to think it's actually concave. The poorest don't actually have time to worry about this stuff, they're way too busy just surviving. The wealthiest don't have time to worry about this stuff, they're way too busy trying to increase the growth rate of their wealth. The people who do actually care the most end up in the middle - they're smart and resourceful enough to not be in extreme poverty, but also too kind and selfless to have gained extreme wealth. Though I think the fact that we can have exactly opposite hypotheses about this metric points to the reality that there isn't really any neat curve to this, or likely most other sorts of hypotheses about complex human beliefs/behaviors projected on a two dimensional space.