2 ms·

It is not only my nature, but human nature. No it isn't. It's the nature of about 30% of people, who can't be happy without knowing that someone else is worse

It is not only my nature, but human nature. No it isn't. It's the nature of about 30% of people, who can't be happy without knowing that someone else is worse off. Many of the characteristics that you ascribe to stupidity are actually examples of selfishness, and you're leveraging the existence thereof to rationalize your own selfishness. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600451 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600451 Your wealth likely derives from a mixture of raw talent, hard work, luck, and preferential attachment, and imho wealth and fitness (in the technical sense) are poorly correlated in modern society.

bequanna 2y ago
> Your wealth likely derives from a mixture of raw talent, hard work, luck, and preferential attachment This is a disturbing viewpoint to see on HN. We already went down this path (a few times) and it resulted in >100 million deaths in the 20th century.
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  Try arguing with substance instead of hyperbolic (and specious) comparisons. Preferential attachment is a well-documented economic phenomenon, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_attachment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_attachment
  - bequanna 2y ago
    This is a feature, not a bug. In our system, capital tends to concentrate and flow to people who are good stewards of it. Many of the rich train their children to provide value and allocate capital efficiently. This is somehow a bad thing? The comment I responded to was the typical collage freshman “eat the rich” bs which is rooted in communistic ideation. Those ideas are generally worthless and go down a shitty path for both the individual and society. Those ideas result in misery literally every time we try them.
    - anigbrowl 2y ago
      Preferential attachment is a natural phenomenon and has nothing to do with 'our system'. One could equally say of an oppressive Stalinist regime 'power tends to concentrate and flow to people who are good stewards of it,' and those who have a lot of power in such societies would not doubt agree. The comment I responded to was the typical collage freshman “eat the rich” bs which is rooted in communistic ideation. Then you should have directed your remarks to the person who wrote that instead of to me.
mbrumlow 2y ago
Actually. I find it the opposite. The 30 percent you speak of don’t care and are not in the web yelling eat the rich. The real problem is the 70% who can’t be happy knowing that others are better off than them. (It’s actually not 70% most don’t care but anybody who says eat the rich is the problematic person)
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  I didn't pull that number out of the air, but from the attached paper. I disagree with your second comment in that your position suggests any criticism of the rich is unwarranted. The startling upward transfer of wealth pursuant to the pandemic, for example, is a rather stark illustration of a particular social group exploiting a general tragedy for profit. https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/qa-how-pandemic-savings-are-trickling-super-rich https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/qa-how-pandemic-savings-are-... Consider the recent phenomenon of 'shrinkflation', where consumers are sold a lower volume of a commodity product for the same price they were paying previously. I find this interesting because it's not a pure supply-and-demand situation where the price of a bulk good changes and you get less product in a box or bottle; companies have to invest money in changing packaging and retooling their production lines. In other words, they choose to spend money on concealing the change in value proposition, whereas if cost inflation was the only economic factor they'd keep selling the same product but raise the price.

bequanna 2y ago

> Your wealth likely derives from a mixture of raw talent, hard work, luck, and preferential attachment This is a disturbing viewpoint to see on HN. We already went down this path (a few times) and it resulted in >100 million deaths in the 20th century.

anigbrowl 2y ago
Try arguing with substance instead of hyperbolic (and specious) comparisons. Preferential attachment is a well-documented economic phenomenon, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_attachment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_attachment
- bequanna 2y ago
  This is a feature, not a bug. In our system, capital tends to concentrate and flow to people who are good stewards of it. Many of the rich train their children to provide value and allocate capital efficiently. This is somehow a bad thing? The comment I responded to was the typical collage freshman “eat the rich” bs which is rooted in communistic ideation. Those ideas are generally worthless and go down a shitty path for both the individual and society. Those ideas result in misery literally every time we try them.
  - anigbrowl 2y ago
    Preferential attachment is a natural phenomenon and has nothing to do with 'our system'. One could equally say of an oppressive Stalinist regime 'power tends to concentrate and flow to people who are good stewards of it,' and those who have a lot of power in such societies would not doubt agree. The comment I responded to was the typical collage freshman “eat the rich” bs which is rooted in communistic ideation. Then you should have directed your remarks to the person who wrote that instead of to me.

mbrumlow 2y ago

Actually. I find it the opposite. The 30 percent you speak of don’t care and are not in the web yelling eat the rich. The real problem is the 70% who can’t be happy knowing that others are better off than them. (It’s actually not 70% most don’t care but anybody who says eat the rich is the problematic person)

anigbrowl 2y ago
I didn't pull that number out of the air, but from the attached paper. I disagree with your second comment in that your position suggests any criticism of the rich is unwarranted. The startling upward transfer of wealth pursuant to the pandemic, for example, is a rather stark illustration of a particular social group exploiting a general tragedy for profit. https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/qa-how-pandemic-savings-are-trickling-super-rich https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/qa-how-pandemic-savings-are-... Consider the recent phenomenon of 'shrinkflation', where consumers are sold a lower volume of a commodity product for the same price they were paying previously. I find this interesting because it's not a pure supply-and-demand situation where the price of a bulk good changes and you get less product in a box or bottle; companies have to invest money in changing packaging and retooling their production lines. In other words, they choose to spend money on concealing the change in value proposition, whereas if cost inflation was the only economic factor they'd keep selling the same product but raise the price.