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You're right, someone being a billionaire has no impact on me, I don't care. But not having enough money to eat or pay for shelter, or having to take any crappy

You're right, someone being a billionaire has no impact on me, I don't care. But not having enough money to eat or pay for shelter, or having to take any crappy job because I'm desperate... that makes me unhappy.

brabel 2y ago
The question is not about that. The question is whether you feel it's unfair when you perform the same work and receive less than someone else. I suppose you have no idea what the billionaire did and hence you don't care. It would perhaps be different if you knew the billionaire from school, went to the same classes, did the same stuff, but they ended up billionaires while you did not?
- globalnode 2y ago
  Yes I agree it would feel unfair when someone gets lucky and you don't. And you can bet they would argue that it wasn't luck, that it was all hard work and "merit", even if only to convince themselves. While this argument may be true to some degree its usually not enough to warrant the disparity. So perhaps I missed the point of the OP, anyway, thanks for clearing it up if that's the case.
  - brabel 2y ago
    I think you're still missing something, it's also not about "getting lucky" (though in real life, yes, that's often important), it's about someone who has the power to reward you, knowing what you've done, intentionally rewarding you with much less than your friend who did the same things as you. That's what they are measuring. The subjects in the experiment can see that the experimenter is observing the work they are doing, and can see how the experimenter consistently rewards the other subject differently. It's much more like when people at the workplace can see how much money their colleagues are making, while having visibility of what each other is doing, and noticing that some are getting much more money at the end of the month (which is one reason employers try as hard as possible to hide their employees' salaries).
    - globalnode 2y ago
      ok I get that argument, if you spell it out like that :) yes its unfair. unless compensation is being rewarded based on some other factor?

brabel 2y ago

The question is not about that. The question is whether you feel it's unfair when you perform the same work and receive less than someone else. I suppose you have no idea what the billionaire did and hence you don't care. It would perhaps be different if you knew the billionaire from school, went to the same classes, did the same stuff, but they ended up billionaires while you did not?

globalnode 2y ago
Yes I agree it would feel unfair when someone gets lucky and you don't. And you can bet they would argue that it wasn't luck, that it was all hard work and "merit", even if only to convince themselves. While this argument may be true to some degree its usually not enough to warrant the disparity. So perhaps I missed the point of the OP, anyway, thanks for clearing it up if that's the case.
- brabel 2y ago
  I think you're still missing something, it's also not about "getting lucky" (though in real life, yes, that's often important), it's about someone who has the power to reward you, knowing what you've done, intentionally rewarding you with much less than your friend who did the same things as you. That's what they are measuring. The subjects in the experiment can see that the experimenter is observing the work they are doing, and can see how the experimenter consistently rewards the other subject differently. It's much more like when people at the workplace can see how much money their colleagues are making, while having visibility of what each other is doing, and noticing that some are getting much more money at the end of the month (which is one reason employers try as hard as possible to hide their employees' salaries).
  - globalnode 2y ago
    ok I get that argument, if you spell it out like that :) yes its unfair. unless compensation is being rewarded based on some other factor?