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The pie isn’t fixed. One man being rich doesn’t make another man poor.
by bedhead 5y ago
The pie isn’t fixed. One man being rich doesn’t make another man poor.
- pastacacioepepe 5y agoAnd yet, that is what happens. How do you explain it?
- csee 5y agoYou're conflating fiat, which is always zero sum when it changes hands in a transaction, with utility and value, which usually is positive sum. When I buy a phone, I am losing $500 to get something that cost $400 to make, and the phone company made $100. But I gained about $2000 worth of hidden value from that transaction because my life got way better and easier! That's why it wasn't zero sum and that's part of the explanation for wealth creation.
- pastacacioepepe 5y agoYou didn't really answer my question. I don't care if a market is a not a zero sum game or any other technicism. I want to know why if you think that a system that thrives on wealth inequality doesn't contribute to poverty, we see median househould incomes declining while all the prices are rising and a very small class of already rich people becomes ever richer.
- kiba 5y agoWe are seeing people hording land. These lands are not being given to developers and people who can make the best use of it, which are very likely to be other wealthy people. Instead of rewarding wealthy people for increasing the pie, we just give wealthy people free money for sitting on lands and having that appreciate, rather than selling it to someone who can use it. "Robust housing market" and rising price is not a good thing. It is a socioeconomic disaster. Another way we becomes poorer: Pattern of development that incentivize ownership of expensive items just to participate in society, like cars and roads.
- Hdhdndhhe 5y agoWhat difference does it make to the poor if Elon's stock goes up 10% tomorrow?
- pastacacioepepe 5y agoThis is just deflecting my question with whataboutism.
- Hdhdndhhe 5y agoHow exactly would Tesla's stock going up make the poor worse off?
- csee 5y agoYou disagreed with the statement "One man being rich doesn’t make another man poor." I was explaining why that statement is actually often correct. When I buy a phone, wealth inequality gets worse but yet it is still a positive sum trade. The system doesn't thrive on wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is a mere byproduct of forces like the tremendous scale afforded by capital markets and technology, the unequal distribution of the extreme end of intelligence, the increasing relevance of intelligence in the context of modern technology, the rise of China as a competitor for our lower classes, and so on.
- pydry 5y agor > g for decades now. That's another way of saying that while it doesnt necessarily have to make another man poor in reality thats precisely what is happening.
- bedhead 5y agoNope. Not even a little bit close. The world gets better for everyone every day. What you and many others dislike is that it gets better at different rates - sometimes vastly different - for different people. Watch out for that envy, it's a mighty dangerous thing. The only one of the 7 deadly sins that isn't any fun.
- akvadrako 5y agoActually it does, because it's about power. For example, if somebody has enough money to easily pay other people to attack you, you are worse off then if that person and all his wealth didn't exist. Too much wealth also means using more of limited resources (like land), being able to influence laws and escaping justice.