4 ms·

The YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal

48 points by salemh 5y ago

wayoutthere 5y ago
Hehehehehe communism bad. Buy more stonks.
- inamiyar 5y ago
  Communism is not built on equality really "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" conveys inequalities everywhere.
  - hackeraccount 5y ago
    My motto for my marriage is more or less that - "from each according to her ability; to each according to his need." As long as I say it fast my wife is totally onboard.
- dang 5y ago
  If you continue to post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments to HN, we are going to have to ban you. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules.
hprotagonist 5y ago
Vonnegut is sorely missed.
andrewclunn 5y ago
https://videa.hu/videok/nagyvilag/2081-2009-short-movie-full-kisfilm-mozi-B07R84IwGrud6oAe https://videa.hu/videok/nagyvilag/2081-2009-short-movie-full...
lostdog 5y ago
Strange, I was just thinking about this story yesterday... The best stories are puzzles of neverending questions. I'm finally satisfied with most of my answers to Harrison Bergenon, but then I started wondering: when the weights are removed, why is the selection of dancers actually good? Wouldn't they be weighed down during their auditions too? And their practice and training? Why did it turn out that the dancers that remained are the highest skilled? In any case, I'm pretty satisfied with my own answers to the Harrison Bergenon puzzle: yes, we should give people artistic, leadership, and engineering roles based on their merit. We should even reward those who can do these jobs at a high level. But maybe the difference in rewards doesn't need to be quite so enormous. So Jeff Bezos gets more money than I do, but maybe not 100,000 times as much money. Maybe just 100x is ok.
- DemocracyFTW 5y ago
  Back-of-the-envelope calculation: at €$10,—/h minimum wage and say 50h/week of work you'd go home with €$2000,—/month from which you have to pay rent, taxes, insurance. This is a plausible sum to get by in much of Europe and the US, especially given that 50h/week is a tall order already, and rents and health insurance combined alone will cost you above €$500,—..1000,— in many places, so it's not like fortunes. If the managers and lawyers and so on get up to 100x this sum, they can go home with €$200.000,— each month, which is over two million currency units per year. This, in dollars and Euros, is so much money it's completely beyond me how any greater differential could be justifiable in any society. Yet this is exactly what we're doing.
slickrick216 5y ago
Felt really similar in tone to the movie Brazil for some reason. That sense of dystopian jollyness where the universe is uncaring even to a righteous cause. I guess this is where the saying banality of evil comes from.

48 points by salemh 5y ago

wayoutthere 5y ago

Hehehehehe communism bad. Buy more stonks.

inamiyar 5y ago
Communism is not built on equality really "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" conveys inequalities everywhere.
- hackeraccount 5y ago
  My motto for my marriage is more or less that - "from each according to her ability; to each according to his need." As long as I say it fast my wife is totally onboard.
dang 5y ago
If you continue to post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments to HN, we are going to have to ban you. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules.

hprotagonist 5y ago

Vonnegut is sorely missed.

andrewclunn 5y ago

https://videa.hu/videok/nagyvilag/2081-2009-short-movie-full-kisfilm-mozi-B07R84IwGrud6oAe https://videa.hu/videok/nagyvilag/2081-2009-short-movie-full...

lostdog 5y ago

Strange, I was just thinking about this story yesterday... The best stories are puzzles of neverending questions. I'm finally satisfied with most of my answers to Harrison Bergenon, but then I started wondering: when the weights are removed, why is the selection of dancers actually good? Wouldn't they be weighed down during their auditions too? And their practice and training? Why did it turn out that the dancers that remained are the highest skilled? In any case, I'm pretty satisfied with my own answers to the Harrison Bergenon puzzle: yes, we should give people artistic, leadership, and engineering roles based on their merit. We should even reward those who can do these jobs at a high level. But maybe the difference in rewards doesn't need to be quite so enormous. So Jeff Bezos gets more money than I do, but maybe not 100,000 times as much money. Maybe just 100x is ok.

DemocracyFTW 5y ago
Back-of-the-envelope calculation: at €$10,—/h minimum wage and say 50h/week of work you'd go home with €$2000,—/month from which you have to pay rent, taxes, insurance. This is a plausible sum to get by in much of Europe and the US, especially given that 50h/week is a tall order already, and rents and health insurance combined alone will cost you above €$500,—..1000,— in many places, so it's not like fortunes. If the managers and lawyers and so on get up to 100x this sum, they can go home with €$200.000,— each month, which is over two million currency units per year. This, in dollars and Euros, is so much money it's completely beyond me how any greater differential could be justifiable in any society. Yet this is exactly what we're doing.

slickrick216 5y ago

Felt really similar in tone to the movie Brazil for some reason. That sense of dystopian jollyness where the universe is uncaring even to a righteous cause. I guess this is where the saying banality of evil comes from.