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People can't decide everything for themselves, but they can decide much more than nothing. Mostly. My wife was born in a place where people couldn't decide whe

by Arnt 3y ago

People can't decide everything for themselves, but they can decide much more than nothing. Mostly. My wife was born in a place where people couldn't decide where to live. When you wanted to move out from your parents, you'd file an application for an apartment, specify in which city, and a suitable apartment would be allocated to you (quite often after some waiting time). What was considered "suitable" was decided by the people in that office, you'd have no say in the matter. In a very real and practical sense, people had no say in where to live. You moved out in order to study and wanted to live near university? Well, you might get a place there, or not — not your choice. This is rare. In most countries people have much more influence over this (and it's a key aspect of everyday life). I'm in Namibia now, a country very much poorer than my native Norway. People here have a say in where to live, like people almost everywhere on the globe. Not completely, they'd have a problem getting a visa to live where I do, but the medical student I chatted with yesterday has the ability to choose whether he'd rather live closer to university or to the hospital. Compared to the worst-off person I personally know, he has a lot of influence over his daily life. The fact that some people don't have the legal right to look for a place to live doesn't mean that most people don't. Most people do.

synetic 3y ago
You vastly undercount the role of luck in Elon’s success and the success of others with billions. There is luck in where you are born. There is luck in terms of who you parents are and how your brain happened to respond to whatever i outs they gave you. There is luck all along the way and due to the idiotic system the U.S. has some will accumulate vast wealth whilst others have virtually nothing. Most people, the billions of extremely poor in the world, don’t really have a choice.
- Arnt 3y ago
  I don't undercount — I don't even try to count. Why should I, really? His fortune would be at most $30/person minus the cost of performing the transfer. Less if his selling all of Tesla leads to the share price dropping, which sounds plausible, so say $15-25. Not per month, it's a one-time transfer. If you want to even consider that kind of thing, pick someone with enough money to make it worthwhile. Say, transfer all of the assets owned by people in the richest big country. That's an easily defined set of of "rich people" and more money than just a few days' earnings for very poor people. If you want to consider that kind of thing.

by Arnt 3y ago

synetic 3y ago

You vastly undercount the role of luck in Elon’s success and the success of others with billions. There is luck in where you are born. There is luck in terms of who you parents are and how your brain happened to respond to whatever i outs they gave you. There is luck all along the way and due to the idiotic system the U.S. has some will accumulate vast wealth whilst others have virtually nothing. Most people, the billions of extremely poor in the world, don’t really have a choice.

Arnt 3y ago
I don't undercount — I don't even try to count. Why should I, really? His fortune would be at most $30/person minus the cost of performing the transfer. Less if his selling all of Tesla leads to the share price dropping, which sounds plausible, so say $15-25. Not per month, it's a one-time transfer. If you want to even consider that kind of thing, pick someone with enough money to make it worthwhile. Say, transfer all of the assets owned by people in the richest big country. That's an easily defined set of of "rich people" and more money than just a few days' earnings for very poor people. If you want to consider that kind of thing.