3 ms·

What is your definition of productive?

• whimsicalism 3y ago
  A process that leads to more of people’s wants being fulfilled. By this definition, there is maybe mild productivity benefits from gambling, but nothing compared to giving money to productive enterprise that is resource constrained.
  • flangola7 3y ago
    Many enterprises "produce" objectively horrifically negative value for humans. It's not a rule that putting money in a gambling machine produces worse outcomes than if it was placed into a company.
    • gwd 3y ago
      A gambling payout never creates anything of value for society; money is simply transferred from the House to one individual customer. An investing payout sometimes creates something of value for society: when the thing invested in turns out to be useful to people.
    • whimsicalism 3y ago
      If we view generally human lives today as better in the past (which I do), then it seems like it follows that the average capital investment is going to net valuable enterprise?