Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
theguardian.com
Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#2we'll we sure should not let this retarded free mason communist salt our mind.
Look at the retard he can't even go fluf.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#3Very well written, I think this is a great argument once you're comfortable.
Once you have some stability you can take a breath and enjoy a good book and have time to think and appreciate the value of knowledge.
However, before that, and those who are disproportionately being kept out of comfort by the current system (working two jobs to make rent, choosing which bills to pay, etc) don't yet have that luxury to rethink wealth.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#4There will always be people who take great pleasure and submit extraordinary effort to accumulate massive wealth. These efforts cannot be ignored in the prosperous society we have today. We take refrigeration and electricity and indoor plumbing - unheard of for the Founding Fathers - for granted, and perceive those without it as living in extreme poverty.
It is only when the pursuit of individual prosperity comes at the expense and suffering of others that limitations - regulations, taxes - are warranted.
It is a good thing we have a system that incentivizes the creation of wealth. But when the wealthy pull up the ladder, they sow the seeds of their own destruction and suffering for themselves and many others.
One need only look at the history of Venice to see how greed and selfishness can turn a once-vibrant and upwardly-mobile society into a permanent has-been.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#5The article asks "can possessions stand in the way of fulfillment?" Experience tells me the answer there is certainly yes, they can and often do. I think achieving a cultural shift away from the accumulation of possessions is achievable-- as cities get more dense, as travel becomes more regular, safe and affordable-- and in some sections of culture this is happening already.
The article also asks though if we can truly ever own things vs only custodian them. Here I don't see any shift happening. The principal of property ownership, where property extends to land and to ownership of business corporations, is what largely drives the Pareto distribution of income we experience. This, in turn, defines the disparity between the rich and the poor. So, I'm not sure a truly fundamental shift can or will happen here.
I'm curious to understand the forthcoming results and learnings from experiments in Universal Basic Income which are beginning to get under way. And I think that if robots and AI actually automate away most current human labor, we might be able to rebalance our economy in a manner beneficial to more people. Alternatively, if life extension becomes more and more practical, the fundaments of our economy may be ripe for change. So, over the course of decades or centuries, I can see the equilibria of our economic system and the distribution of incomes and therefore wealth accumulation changing dramatically. But I don't think it happens through any mere cultural shift in thinking nor via incremental policy changes. That may not be a bad thing, but everyone should know that the fundamental rules of the system are unlikely to change dramatically any time soon, without some major impetus to necessitate it.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#6As an aside, in order to distract myself from my own local decadence, particularly at night when its time to sleep, I have been entertaining myself with an investigation of literature and cultural artifacts pertaining to the lives and living of the 18th Century, or at least: any particular culture beyond the fringe of the last 100 years.
Its only a trivial pursuit, nothing in particularly serious, academic, or even principled. Rather just something to think about before embarking into the nightly darkened garden, of thought and mystery.
I can't help but think it is such a tragedy just how artificial it all is, and has been, for the last few centuries. We have created immense artifice; extreme transfer of responsibility and control at very mechanical, practical, energetic levels of human discourse. The cities we have created, the means we have endeavoured to make available to all, or none, or at least many, simply "to get there" in the human equation: it continues to impress a fiction upon the land. Utterly fictional.
Consider the average airline passenger. How they manage to navigate the labyrinthine means by which the space was navigated, to go from New York to Tokyo. (Or any other place, perhaps Ankara to Cairo, if you like. It doesn't really matter.)
How extreme we have become, we species. That we do not acknowledge our principle accomplishments, beyond all else the universe pitches against us, while follying and crippling ourselves with ghosts and fakery.
Kill the fakery. If it works, sell it. Sell the hell out of it. Humans perpetuate technology first, bullshit second. Never forget the complete nature of the theorem.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#7I don't understand the reaction to Brexit. It was democracy in action! These things happen, and it's alright when they do!
There are so many countries that are not in the EU. Are they all doomed?
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#8It seems his premise is "Rethink wealth so you feel better about giving your money to others" I find it well meaning but naive to human nature. It might as well have been called "Ignore human nature". Wealth stems from "taking" resources and wanting to survive. We are in a petri dish of limited resources, with more and more people consuming. Good luck with that math.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#9I don't understand the reaction to Brexit. It was democracy in action! These things happen, and it's alright when they do! There are so many countries that are not in the EU. Are they all doomed?
I believe that it is not simply the decision of leaving the EU that is the big news. It is the ideas and discussions that caused that decision to be made by the majority of the UK population (this article focusing in on the economic inequality portion of the argument) that are the most interesting and cause the largest reaction.
I should also mention that it is big news in the US because we are seeing similar sentiments from a portion of our populace and the foreshadowing of our own elections is, well, interesting.
Re: Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth
#10"Does money matter?"
i will check with my landlord and let you know.