Also related: Experimental Economist Bart Wilson on the Meaning of "Fair"
Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry for not being clear enough. No, services are indeed an economic activity. Just that I don't see service reliant economies as sustainable in the long term. They are all in debt, and always were working into debt, unlike traditional industrial societies, which have better track record. And along those lines, it is unfair to complain about high degree of welfare dependency: not everyone can work in the City, and t…
I'm afraid I don't see where you have successfully linked service-reliant economies with debt. There may be a correlation - I haven't looked at the data, but is A a cause of B?
I've seen no half-decent model of wealth creation in service economies. It's the equivalent of dark matter in modern economics, and all attempts at it I've seen end up in explaining away why the accumulating debt is not an issue.
If you know of a good one, please point me to it. I would like to be proven wrong here, and educate myself.
Service economy sounds wrong superficially, and doesn't have clear, satisfactory explanation when you dig into details either. I feel the major reason why it is cited as future is that it's the way society drifts to at the moment. That, coupled with their actual underperformance, is what pushes me to this, apparently unpopular, conclusion.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#23Life is not fair objectively but there is the belief that it _ought_ to be fair. That makes a big difference. It is part of the common sense protocol of interacting with people. _Most_ people will assume that life ought to be fair, they also assume that others assume the same thing.
This belief in fairness can be exploited by sociopaths and those who end up in power. Of course, one can argue they ended up in a position of power because they exploited others' "fairness" expectation.
This probably has implications for how crime and punishment is treated by different cultures. The strong belief in a universal justice often gets used by the penal system to punish criminals in proportion to how much "retribution" the victim (or their family) demands. This is usually veiled in a some kind of a "the victim's family needs closure" type argument.
At the same time, I think, this revenge based justice is a result (and a perversion) of a universal religious justice that many members of the society have (had?). The idea that life is fair even beyond life, and afterlife is a place where retribution and rewards are dealt with.
It is interesting how for such a Christian nation, America has such a harsh penal system -- one would expect all those Christians to just let the criminals be punished in the afterlife.
EDIT: some syntax errors, clarity
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#24I think it is just wrong to assume that social security exists because people are so good in their hearts and like being taken advantage of. Probably many (the majority) thinks so, but in reality, it is simply a form of insurance. Also, I pay up to keep the beggars and robbers off the street. That is a purely selfish reason - I think solid political systems should be based on selfishness.
"I think solid political systems should be based on selfishness." This can't work, because there's no end in selfishness. If you're more selfish than others, than you will have an advantage, as long the others are a bit less selfish. At the end selfishness harms itself.
If you are too selfish, society will cast you out. So it is selfish to not be too selfish. I don't mean everybody should be as selfish as possible, just that society should be a net win. Granted, it is more difficult than it sounds.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#25Also related: Experimental Economist Bart Wilson on the Meaning of "Fair" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaFpB7z5y3Y
Fascinating - the researcher in the video mentioned that 'fair' is an English-language concept without a precise one-to-one translation in other languages.
Briefly messing about with Google Translate seems to bear this out - for many of the other languages I checked, Google suggested one word meaning 'just' and another meaning 'equitable'.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#26America has better http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility
But the article states at the bottom that "the USA fairs very poorly when compared to European countries". And the Guardian showed the USA does worse than most OECD economies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/10/oecd-uk-worst...
Isn't it interesting that 'worse' and 'very poorly' imply a negative value judgement?
We seem to (well, at least I seem to) instinctively dislike the child of privilege, but at the same time I'm very interested in passing on whatever success I manage to have in life to my descendants, and systems and societies that make it more difficult for me to do so strike me as completely unfair.
There's a bit of a contradiction here.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
But the article states at the bottom that "the USA fairs very poorly when compared to European countries". And the Guardian showed the USA does worse than most OECD economies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/10/oecd-uk-worst...
Isn't it interesting that 'worse' and 'very poorly' imply a negative value judgement? We seem to (well, at least I seem to) instinctively dislike the child of privilege, but at the same time I'm very interested in passing on whatever success I manage to have in life to my descendants, and systems and societies that make it more difficult for me to do so strike me as completely unfair. There's a bit of a contradiction…
Indeed, I've become a hypocrite myself - I used to abhor private education when I was younger (although I didn't actually have any contact with anyone who had been privately educated when I was at school). Now that I can afford it and the benefits are obvious I send my son to private school where you do get an "unfair" advantage.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#28I remember the first time I worked out that life's not fair. There's no over-arching justice to ensure that just because someone beats be at one thing they won't beat me at another. Nature as a whole has no sense of fair play. The best you can do is get on with life. Having said that, if you treat people well you often find that their sense of fair play gives you a safety net. But always remember: "Life is pain, high…
"Fair" is "if you don't work you don't eat" but that isn't what people actually want...
Is that "fair"?, or is that what those who worked all their lives want everyone to believe in order to justify themselves having worked all their lives?
Just a thought, not an opinion.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Fair" is "if you don't work you don't eat" but that isn't what people actually want...
Is that "fair"?, or is that what those who worked all their lives want everyone to believe in order to justify themselves having worked all their lives? Just a thought, not an opinion.
I don't think that makes sense. Maybe "If you don't work you get to eat anyway" is what those who sat on their fat asses all day want everyone to believe to justify sitting on their asses all day.
Re: Life's unfair? Do something Or just get used to it.
#30I remember the first time I worked out that life's not fair. There's no over-arching justice to ensure that just because someone beats be at one thing they won't beat me at another. Nature as a whole has no sense of fair play. The best you can do is get on with life. Having said that, if you treat people well you often find that their sense of fair play gives you a safety net. But always remember: "Life is pain, high…
Giraffe Rider,
I have always said “life is not fair” but recently have come to believe and accept it.
A 36 year old friend was an innocent victim of an automobile accident seven weeks ago. He is still unable to communicate and move. A respectable individual with a wife and three young girls.
Another "young" (42) neighbor of mine, father with three kids. Cancer came back of out remission and a recent bone marrow transplant failed.
>The best you can do is get on with life. Agreed. Part of being born is dying. We need to accept our fate, make the best of it and move on. I now have a much deeper appreciation of my good health (and most of my family members around me). I don’t take it for granted any more.