3 ms·

No, it is a pretty good allocation and a great use of that talent. That talent is producing value at a scale unprecedented in human civilisation. The human race

No, it is a pretty good allocation and a great use of that talent. That talent is producing value at a scale unprecedented in human civilisation. The human race has spoken, and this is what it wants. And I, for one, love it.

jacobolus 7y ago
> talent is producing value at a scale unprecedented As far as I can tell, much of this “value” consists of inserting oneself into existing money flows and diverting a tiny part into one’s own pocket, at the expense of everyone else in the society. Wages in the broader society have been stagnant for decades despite steep increases in labor productivity. Healthcare, housing, and education costs keep skyrocketing without commensurate improvements in quality. In the USA, life expectancy is going down, infrastructure is aging without replacement, worker and consumer protections have eroded, children’s lives are increasingly regimented and controlled, 40% of adults are obese, loneliness is rampant, young people are deeply indebted, almost nobody has enough savings to comfortably retire, many ecosystems are facing collapse and many species are facing extinction, ...
- scarejunba 7y ago
  Listen, I know you have your pet loves: American obesity, loneliness, debt, etc. etc. I have mine. And it is possible that if I allocated all labour I wouldn't do it like you would. In fact, I suspect no two people would have the exact same allocation. Fortunately, because we are free people, we have proposed a mechanism. You make something valuable to me and you get a sort of exchangeable vote from me that you can use to get someone (perhaps even me) to make something valuable for you. This is a nice mechanism because that way useful people can be rewarded for their usefulness by letting them choose the next thing for labour to be allocated to. This system is distributed, everyone trusts the vote, and you can't make me do something against my will. This system of free and fair collaboration and competition has produced the current allocation as the current consolidated view of what people want. It's not what you want, true. It's not even what I want. But it's what we (all of us) want as independent agents collaborating and competing with each other.
- kortilla 7y ago
  >As far as I can tell, much of this “value” consists of inserting oneself into existing money flows and diverting a tiny part into one’s own pocket, at the expense of everyone else in the society. Then you should keep “what you can tell” to yourself. People that sit in the middle and provide no value are quickly competed out of business without the protection of some kind of government mandate to be a middleman.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

jacobolus 7y ago

> talent is producing value at a scale unprecedented As far as I can tell, much of this “value” consists of inserting oneself into existing money flows and diverting a tiny part into one’s own pocket, at the expense of everyone else in the society. Wages in the broader society have been stagnant for decades despite steep increases in labor productivity. Healthcare, housing, and education costs keep skyrocketing without commensurate improvements in quality. In the USA, life expectancy is going down, infrastructure is aging without replacement, worker and consumer protections have eroded, children’s lives are increasingly regimented and controlled, 40% of adults are obese, loneliness is rampant, young people are deeply indebted, almost nobody has enough savings to comfortably retire, many ecosystems are facing collapse and many species are facing extinction, ...

scarejunba 7y ago
Listen, I know you have your pet loves: American obesity, loneliness, debt, etc. etc. I have mine. And it is possible that if I allocated all labour I wouldn't do it like you would. In fact, I suspect no two people would have the exact same allocation. Fortunately, because we are free people, we have proposed a mechanism. You make something valuable to me and you get a sort of exchangeable vote from me that you can use to get someone (perhaps even me) to make something valuable for you. This is a nice mechanism because that way useful people can be rewarded for their usefulness by letting them choose the next thing for labour to be allocated to. This system is distributed, everyone trusts the vote, and you can't make me do something against my will. This system of free and fair collaboration and competition has produced the current allocation as the current consolidated view of what people want. It's not what you want, true. It's not even what I want. But it's what we (all of us) want as independent agents collaborating and competing with each other.
kortilla 7y ago
>As far as I can tell, much of this “value” consists of inserting oneself into existing money flows and diverting a tiny part into one’s own pocket, at the expense of everyone else in the society. Then you should keep “what you can tell” to yourself. People that sit in the middle and provide no value are quickly competed out of business without the protection of some kind of government mandate to be a middleman.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]