3 ms·

The size of the cake is not fixed. Excessive redistribution somehow leads to less cake production.

• nicoburns 6y ago
  It's not fixed, but neither is it unbounded. > Excessive redistribution somehow leads to less cake production. Indeed, but emphasis on excessive. I'd argue that we currently have an excessive lack of redistribution which is also leading to less cake production.
  • andi999 6y ago
    Agree, a balance has to be found, I would say most of Europe is in balance. Cake could be (practically) unbounded, since (real) value can increase with actually less consumption of resources.
    • nicoburns 6y ago
      > Cake could be (practically) unbounded, since (real) value can increase with actually less consumption of resources. I don't think this follows. Yes we can make better use of resources, but there's a limit. And given the huge wealth differentials (two or three orders of magnitude) it's feasible and even likely that that limit is lower than the amount of wealth available for redistribution.
      • darkerside 6y ago
        Go back 100 years and the way we have increased our resources would have been completely unimaginable. It would break any possible definition of boundedness that you could have thought of at the time. For all intents and purposes, trying to establish potential limits on economic growth is silly and destructive.