4 ms·
The sensationalism surrounding this is really kind of sad. It also drives a knife through the intellectual aptitudes of my circle of friends. People don't reall
by dylangs1030 13y ago
The sensationalism surrounding this is really kind of sad. It also drives a knife through the intellectual aptitudes of my circle of friends. People don't really understand game theory or sociological models well enough to understand that this sort of wealth distribution makes sense, when you look at data.
The biggest impediment to this, in my experience, is that people expect reality to intuitively make sense, and operate according to their intuitive ideals of what's correct. Nature has no reason to do this, and is often...very unintuitive.
- czr80 13y agoOk. I understand game theory. What do you mean that this "makes sense"?
- dylangs1030 13y agoIt makes sense as in it's expected. Economists come to expect this as a "rising tide" - it eventually happens. It waxes and wanes, but it does happen and it's not a grand conspiracy. It's the market fluctuating.
- jbooth 13y agoThis sort of wealth distribution is almost without precedent in the modern economy. It happened before in the 1920s and didn't end well. If you understand "game theory or sociological models well enough to understand that this sort of wealth distribution makes sense, when you look at data", can you explain it to me? I was under the impression that it's a disturbing trend and would love to be comforted.
- dylangs1030 13y agoA good jumping point would be the "Matthew Effect" - the sociological theory of accumulated advantage. This is usually paraphrased as "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" in lay parlance but it is a legitimate academic theory in sociology. It illustrates a model of wealth distribution - particularly wealth disparity, and how it's somewhat inevitable despite repeated system "tweaks".
- Sven7 13y agoplease, no game theory or social modeling necessary... Talking about nature, on the Serengeti you see a handful of lion and thousands of zebra. In the ocean you see a couple of whales and millions of fish. Now who doesn't want to see thousands of lions or whales? But it hasn't happened. ever. in nature. So its safe to assume we aren't going to do any better. All we can try to do is ensure everyone has an equal shot at becoming a lion if they so choose. Most people are perfectly happy being Zebra imho.
- jbooth 13y agoIf the lions eat too much, zebra population declines and lions begin starving. This is bad for both the zebras and lions.
- Sven7 13y agoYou can tell the lions that all you want, but lions will be lions, or as Alan Greenspan said our assumption that its in ones self interest to do the right thing has a little flaw. When push comes to shove, self interest always ends up being for ones self not the collective. It is going to be a long time, requiring a whole lot of mental evolution for there ever to be trust between the lion and the zebra. Only when that trust exists can the search for a solution begin.