Is it inevitable? That indicates a teleology and feels to this reader like a bogus question.
Is it structural? Oh hell yes it is.
Is Inequality Inevitable?
131–140 of 628 posts
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
If course it is...it's a natural consequence of compound interest. One's ability to accumulate additional wealth scales exponentially with their level OF EFFORT. Even a wealthy person can lose their money if they don't make an effort investing it properly. How do people build wealth from the ground up? They work hard each and every day and that effort COMPOUNDS. They get smarter, more opportunities present themselves…
The "Just World" fallacy written into a single comment. It starts with "effort leads to results", and then mixes that with "effort is virtue" and concludes "people who have results, must be virtuous". Then turns it around and says "people who don't have results must not be virtuous, and therefore deserve their lack of results". "Effort leads to results" is based on the Just World idea that if you do what the winners…
Sometimes I run into comments which make me realize how differently people can think about the world. It's always a bit of a shock.
It does make me feel a bit of despair at the prospect of humanity ever reaching an agreement that would make everyone satisfied. I guess having most satisfied will have to do, but regardless, it's rough.
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#133...
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Per capita GDP increased less from the Stone Age to now than you might think. Even if you discount all goods other than food to zero, it’s less than 100x growth in the last ~5-10,000 years. That’s less than 0.1% per year growth over that timeframe. Though valuing ancient goods at equivalent modern prices is debatable, it seems like a reasonable metric.
The core point remains which is - wealth is not static. It is _created_.
I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Economic output is not entirely static, but it is not completely accurate to say a creative hard-working person who comes along and amasses a lot of wealth has created all of that wealth either.
This should not be a controversial statement. Imagine a simple scenario where Walmart alone, represents the economy and they sell 100 units per year. Then Amazon comes along and starts competing and after a while Walmart is only selling 50 units a year and Amazon is selling 60 units per year. You could now argue that 10 units/year of wealth have been created.
Maybe I am misunderstanding you but it seems you are arguing that 60 units/year of wealth were created in this scenario?
Of course this is only a simple scenario where all the variables are fixed, in the real world there are thousands variables (or more) interacting with each other. Which is why IMO, it's overly simplistic to say that one person's prosperity is zero-sum but also equally simplistic to say that wealth is created independently of the rest of the economy.
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Per capita GDP increased less from the Stone Age to now than you might think. Even if you discount all goods other than food to zero, it’s less than 100x growth in the last ~5-10,000 years. That’s less than 0.1% per year growth over that timeframe. Though valuing ancient goods at equivalent modern prices is debatable, it seems like a reasonable metric.
The core point remains which is - wealth is not static. It is _created_.
From where? Jeff Bezos space mining ventures? Eventually the question about the size of the economy and endless growth must be answered.
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#136My perspective on this might be too naive; but it seems wealth inequality (which is the topic of this article) is inevitable since a significant proportion of the population will spend their entire income and therefore never save.
It seems like about 19% of all Americans have zero net worth, and something like 44% of single American retirees are dependent on Social Security for 90% or more of their income, implying they saved very little throughout their entire lifetimes.
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because for the foreseeable future there will be resources that are important to people and are limited. If inequality gets so severe that some people are unable to get the resources that are important to them then they tend to get upset. One of the most obvious examples in America right now is a house in a desirable part of the country. Buying a house has always been a major investment; however, housing prices are n…
Is “a house in a modern city” a basic right? Or just “a house”?
"modern city", maybe not, but there's a world of difference between, say, a shack in the woods and an apartment with aircon/heating/insulation (as appropriate) and easy access to groceries.
I don't know where the line is, but if you say the basic right is just "house", and that gets enforced, someone's going to try to draw that line as low as they can. Probably a few developers try to argue that if everyone gets a house then zoning laws need to be relaxed so they can afford it, and (hyperbole) we're back to windowless apartments with one room per family and one bathroom per floor.
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a little bit like saying you don't like air temperature as a measure because it doesn't show humidity, which is also important. Sure, overall GDP per capita + GINI might make sense as a measure of overall/median/average/something standard of living, but GINI isn't a standard of living measure, just one component of that. Edit: I think parent edited their post to add a few more clarifying statements, so this po…
This is obviously wrong. You can have uniformly poor country (theoretically) that has very good GINI. Look at the table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq... You have Ukraine which has fantastic GINI of 25%, much better than 41% of US. Other countries that have GINI in neighborhood of US? Senegal, Madagascar, Angola? What kind of measure is that?
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Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#139Let's assume for sake of argument that "inequality" is in fact "inevitable." Then what policy conclusions are we supposed to draw?
Universal Basic Income to even it out a bit I assume!
Re: Is Inequality Inevitable?
#140Inequality will always be inevitable. Striving to better yourself by learning new skills and improving your abilities is to produce inequality because you're rising above the mediocre masses anytime you make an effort at anything. People should focus on equity, not equality. Equality of outcome is more fair than equality of opportunity.
>Equality of outcome is more fair How so? To equalize outcomes for all parties, you must take from those that performed better?
I might have phrased it incorrectly but the message I was trying to convey is that those that perform better and produce more results should be rewarded more (as expected) because they put in the effort to achieved better outcomes, rather than giving someone a head start because of their race or economic status (ie affirmative action) which is inequality.