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The problem is human greed. Even if you burn everything down and rebuild, the problem of greed remains. Oh, and lust for power. See all of human history. Th

by DannyB2 10y ago

The problem is human greed. Even if you burn everything down and rebuild, the problem of greed remains. Oh, and lust for power. See all of human history. Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. (Usually in summer school.)

nickthemagicman 10y ago
If greed was the only driving force in human history we wouldn't have democracy, philosophy, sciences, etc. There's plenty of other powerful counteracting forces to greed in the human psyche and society, like justice, social consciousness, and fairness. It takes education and awareness, I think to really feel like those are important. And America is increasingly becoming less educated and aware.
- tertius 10y ago
  > And America is increasingly becoming less educated and aware. I would think the opposite is true.
  - nickthemagicman 10y ago
    Well actually you're correct! More people are getting college educated nowdays. The issue is that this is concentrated in certain regions of the country, while vast swaths of the country have much poorer education outcomes. These are primarily Red States. I have to do a little more research to get some cites when I have a free min, but you are correct and thanks for the clarification.
pembrook 10y ago
Yes. True socialism (aka communism) is like a product created by a founder without user testing. The product sounds really really good in the pitch, even good enough to dupe lots of investors! However after launch you realize it was designed without taking into account the real as opposed to the hypothetical behavior of users. Your users (humans as a whole) have shown after thousands of years of user testing that we demand power gamification so much--we will even find ways to create it inside systems designed to be without it (to extreme negative affect if the system wasn't designed to contain it). Hence why every thriving country today is the result of employing some level of market economics in its system.
moogly 10y ago
> Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach." - Aldous Huxley

by DannyB2 10y ago

nickthemagicman 10y ago

If greed was the only driving force in human history we wouldn't have democracy, philosophy, sciences, etc. There's plenty of other powerful counteracting forces to greed in the human psyche and society, like justice, social consciousness, and fairness. It takes education and awareness, I think to really feel like those are important. And America is increasingly becoming less educated and aware.

tertius 10y ago
> And America is increasingly becoming less educated and aware. I would think the opposite is true.
- nickthemagicman 10y ago
  Well actually you're correct! More people are getting college educated nowdays. The issue is that this is concentrated in certain regions of the country, while vast swaths of the country have much poorer education outcomes. These are primarily Red States. I have to do a little more research to get some cites when I have a free min, but you are correct and thanks for the clarification.

pembrook 10y ago

Yes. True socialism (aka communism) is like a product created by a founder without user testing. The product sounds really really good in the pitch, even good enough to dupe lots of investors! However after launch you realize it was designed without taking into account the real as opposed to the hypothetical behavior of users. Your users (humans as a whole) have shown after thousands of years of user testing that we demand power gamification so much--we will even find ways to create it inside systems designed to be without it (to extreme negative affect if the system wasn't designed to contain it). Hence why every thriving country today is the result of employing some level of market economics in its system.

moogly 10y ago

> Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach." - Aldous Huxley