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I don't disagree with you. I think there's an even argument along these lines that we don't really have free will, since our initial biology and environmental c
by csallen 3mo ago
I don't disagree with you. I think there's an even argument along these lines that we don't really have free will, since our initial biology and environmental circumstances aren't within our control, and yet every subsequent decision and choice follows inexorably from those initial conditions.
To me, this inspires empathy and care, and it's why I believe that society should have a very high floor. But discussions like these, and the current "eat the rich" zeitgeist seem to focus so much more on lowering the ceiling. Which to me is the wrong focus.
- yw3410 3mo agoNot really? If the same value and wealth is being created - the redistribution of it raises the floor as well.
- csallen 3mo agoCapping the ceiling would be a tremendous mistake. It would eliminate the "if" in your scenario. The same value in wealth would not be created. You would be massively disincentivizing people to stay here and innovate, and that innovation would flow elsewhere or simply diminish. Luckily, we've never actually capped the ceiling, and it's unlikely we ever will.
- dana-s 3mo agoIf there's no cap on a ceiling, is it fair or humanly okay when someone's wealth is Epstein-enough to own other people's lives? Wealth is a proxy for power, when someone has more power than legal systems or enough to swindle all of it, is that a better world? There should be a ceiling or we reach the current state where accountability is nothing a million dollars can't buy.
- csallen 3mo agoDo you seriously believe the by limiting people's wealth, we'll solve problems like this? Humans used to have thousands of times less wealth than we do now, yet people still had power and influence, harems and slaves, cults and gangs.
- UncleMeat 3mo agoSolve? Likely not. Improve? Of course. Policies that improve the state of problems even if they remain unsolved are good. More than one million people die of TB annually. We have a cure for it. Elon Musk could pay for testing and treatment distribution for the entire world without noticing a change in his wealth. A million people a year.
- csallen 3mo agoI feel like you should read about systems thinking. You're ignoring so many potential side effects, so much history, so many statistics, incentives, human psychology. The idea of capping wealth in order to try to prevent certain power imbalances like sex trafficking, is similar to firebombing your house to fix a leaky pipe. Not only would it mess up a ton of stuff, but it wouldn't even fix the problem.
- UncleMeat 3mo agoOf course there are side effects. The question is whether those side effects are worth the benefits we'd get. Millions dead every year from TB. A curable disease.
- dana-s 3mo agoThe idea of capping wealth is to cap power imbalance, without power imbalance many things would not be able to happen within a system, alas there are as you say many potential side effects, implementations of how a cap could work would have to be discussed by society, right now I do feel people are very mad about inequality as is, what solutions are there for it?
- UncleMeat 3mo agoI have never met a founder who was motivated, even in part, by the possibility of being a mega billionaire.