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If the world actually equitably shared wealth, the western would have an absolutely astounding drop in our incomes and quality of life. Few would accept this. T

If the world actually equitably shared wealth, the western would have an absolutely astounding drop in our incomes and quality of life. Few would accept this. The average person in the first world has a massively higher quality of life than developing countries. This is why the only long term answer is technological development, without which we would all still be subsistence farming (and all poor). It would be nice if we had more social advances coupled with this, but that is predicated on human nature taking a different turn than it has historically acted.

swayvil 9y ago
How about a reduce-the-population plague, like zika? Wouldn't that achieve equity? Actually, that might count as a tech solution.
cmahler7 9y ago
this, tech is lifting more and more people out of poverty. It's still not great but compared to feudal times where basically everyone were peasants except for a small nobility we are doing well and it will get better with time. This is also why I don't really support universal health care. UHC doesn't fix the supply/demand problem, but I think that AI/ML and other tech will, making health care affordable for everyone in time. I would rather the government invest trillions in R&D to actually solve the problem as opposed to a stop gap like UHC.
freneticfox 9y ago
While the average quality of life in the western world is still currently higher than the global average, there have been recent data points in the US that globalization has drug certain subsets of the US down to 3rd-world levels of life quality[1][2]. Globalization is desirable on many levels and happening, and it is already beginning to pull down on the bottom end of western society (and similarly, pull upwards on the bottom end of non-western societies). What we're getting is globalization (which essentially causes equalization across geographic/national boundaries) without wealth redistribution (within national legal boundaries), which means that while the global average scales are slowly equalizing, there will continue to be a vast split between the rich and poor everywhere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia#Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia... [2] https://www.sanders.senate.gov/life-in-mcdowell-county https://www.sanders.senate.gov/life-in-mcdowell-county - "Men in McDowell County have the same life expectancy as men in Namibia"
Chris2048 9y ago
There is a correlation between having wealth, and being able to make the best of it. If there was a wealth sharing event, a vast amount would be lost, and inequality would rise again. monetary equality without equality of personal value (skills, qualifications) and motivation (behavior, habits) is moot. Also, for some, the lack of equality of those fronts might be spent, instead, on criminal enterprises - money is power after all, and power corrupts. Then there would be more crooks among the wealthy.

swayvil 9y ago

How about a reduce-the-population plague, like zika? Wouldn't that achieve equity? Actually, that might count as a tech solution.

cmahler7 9y ago

this, tech is lifting more and more people out of poverty. It's still not great but compared to feudal times where basically everyone were peasants except for a small nobility we are doing well and it will get better with time. This is also why I don't really support universal health care. UHC doesn't fix the supply/demand problem, but I think that AI/ML and other tech will, making health care affordable for everyone in time. I would rather the government invest trillions in R&D to actually solve the problem as opposed to a stop gap like UHC.

freneticfox 9y ago

While the average quality of life in the western world is still currently higher than the global average, there have been recent data points in the US that globalization has drug certain subsets of the US down to 3rd-world levels of life quality[1][2]. Globalization is desirable on many levels and happening, and it is already beginning to pull down on the bottom end of western society (and similarly, pull upwards on the bottom end of non-western societies). What we're getting is globalization (which essentially causes equalization across geographic/national boundaries) without wealth redistribution (within national legal boundaries), which means that while the global average scales are slowly equalizing, there will continue to be a vast split between the rich and poor everywhere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia#Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia... [2] https://www.sanders.senate.gov/life-in-mcdowell-county https://www.sanders.senate.gov/life-in-mcdowell-county - "Men in McDowell County have the same life expectancy as men in Namibia"

Chris2048 9y ago

There is a correlation between having wealth, and being able to make the best of it. If there was a wealth sharing event, a vast amount would be lost, and inequality would rise again. monetary equality without equality of personal value (skills, qualifications) and motivation (behavior, habits) is moot. Also, for some, the lack of equality of those fronts might be spent, instead, on criminal enterprises - money is power after all, and power corrupts. Then there would be more crooks among the wealthy.