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How is “enlarging the cake” (usually the metaphor is “pie”) naïve?

• BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
  If everyone’s slices get enlarged in proportion, the naive assumption, then it works as expected. If some people are clever enough to direct the enlargement towards their slices, then it doesn’t.
  • throwpoaster 2y ago
    The “growing the pie” metaphor has never been about growing all the pieces proportionately. It’s an illustration of how economic growth and Pareto optimization works: you can have a bigger slice (be richer) AND less of the pie (economy grew faster).
    • BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
      When I hear it nowadays, especially from politicians, it sounds more like another way to say “rising tide lifts all ships.” I think it’s taken on a more jingoistic meaning colloquially.