Magic Poriferan
^He pronks, too!
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2007
- Messages
- 14,081
- MBTI Type
- Yin
- Enneagram
- One
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
Whether or not we're talking about monetary wealth or real wealth, nearly all my points about the negative effects of equality in this entry apply either way. Power and incentives are altered by the relative distribution of any kind of wealth.
This too is important for understanding that making everyone wealthier, that is even with real wealth, can still be problematic if you are making some people wealthier than others. Even as everyone gets richer, a skewed distribution of that wealth means most people will become less powerful in their society, because power is relative. One has to ask if making everyone richer at an unequal pace actually makes most people better off. Sometimes it does, but it doesn't always like so many assume. The cost of decreasing my power relative to the most powerful can be greater than the benefit of getting richer in absolute terms.
This too is important for understanding that making everyone wealthier, that is even with real wealth, can still be problematic if you are making some people wealthier than others. Even as everyone gets richer, a skewed distribution of that wealth means most people will become less powerful in their society, because power is relative. One has to ask if making everyone richer at an unequal pace actually makes most people better off. Sometimes it does, but it doesn't always like so many assume. The cost of decreasing my power relative to the most powerful can be greater than the benefit of getting richer in absolute terms.
