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It doesn't scale, is the thing. You can't walk into a macdonalds and walk out with a billion burgers just because you're a billionaire. What seems to make sense
by samvega_ 5y ago
It doesn't scale, is the thing. You can't walk into a macdonalds and walk out with a billion burgers just because you're a billionaire. What seems to make sense on a micro level is completely nonsensical on a macro level. Money is mostly tied up in property, stock, loans and financial derivatives anyway. It's largely a ficticious element, which is printed by the billions every day.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y agoOf course it scales. Sure, he'd probably need to call ahead (like, way ahead), but if a billionaire wanted to buy a billion burgers, it's not like that's an impossibility.
- CornCobs 5y agoAre you sure? At that scale there are so many second order and third order effects that scaling production is likely very nontrivial
- donmcronald 5y ago> It doesn't scale, is the thing. You can't walk into a macdonalds and walk out with a billion burgers just because you're a billionaire. That's only because the super rich are dictating what's in demand. If you take all the money being spent on luxury watches and start spending it on dental care for children, the market should reduce the supply of watch makers and increase the supply of dentists in order to meet the demand for each.
- samvega_ 5y agoMost money is invested in assets designed to retain wealth or increase profits, directly or indirectly. Their wealth and power is contingent upon that very scheme.
- williamtrask 5y agoI’m sure Mac Donald’s would happily make a few billion burgers for the right price
- CornCobs 5y agoI first read your example as a snarky one, but on reading it again its implications are rather profound. I wonder how much of our problems arise because our intuitions and assumptions on the small scale simply fail on the macro scale