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The point is, the more that gains are distributed randomly in society (and not due to productive effort or doing something useful), the more unstable a society
by medvezhenok 3y ago
The point is, the more that gains are distributed randomly in society (and not due to productive effort or doing something useful), the more unstable a society becomes.
Sort of how the Weimar hyperinflation in the 1920s (which exacerbated the feeling that things are unfair) set the stage for the rise of Hitler in the 30s.
If taken to the extreme, it leads to the collapse of law&order.
It’s also why feudal systems were inherently unstable and suffered many uprisings.
- smsm42 3y agoWeimar wasn't random in any way or form. A lot of purposeful action went into making Weimar what it was, and the subsequent events what they were. It wasn't the result of random distribution of gains, it was a result of many purposeful actions of many people. Inflation included of course.
- medvezhenok 3y agoThe randomness depends on the perspective - I'm sure that for the people in power or in the know it was not random, but to a random peasant/worker in Germany, it probably seemed pretty random. Same as stock market investing - you can say that the profits are due to smart investing, but you can't ignore all of the centralized decision makers that put their thumb on the scale (i.e. 2008 bailouts?), which preference specific outcomes. In fact, this intervention makes the resulting disparate outcomes worse than random in the eyes of many people (i.e. people are more willing to accept the winner of a random lottery than a lottery that they believe was rigged).