5 ms·

You are conflating equality with fairness. The simulation shows it's possible to have a fair game with unequal outcomes.

• Applejinx 4y ago
  A fair game with power-law distribution unequal outcomes. The idea of inequality of outcome isn't itself an issue: problem comes when you start drawing inferences from this that aren't supported. Just because the distribution produces ultra-wealthy doesn't mean those ultra-wealthy are any good. If actual merit is distributed as some percentage of the population, this experiment PROVES that allowing the power-law distribution to develop, means you are most likely taking resources from those with potential merit and awarding it, through random chance and the power-law mechanic, to an undeserving recipient, more often than not. That's because the ultra-wealthy is just as likely to be useless as the ultra-poor, but each ultra-wealthy consumes resources equal to hundreds or thousands or millions of ultra-poor, some of whom would be useful and capable if they weren't at that lower boundary (which is a pretty crippling condition, as anybody knows who's been there). Doesn't mean the ultra-wealthy can't be useful and capable… but the odds are increasingly against them, the farther up they are on the distribution.