- cross-posted to:
- socialism@midwest.social
- socialism@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- socialism@midwest.social
- socialism@lemmy.ml
The simple math of the Yard-Sale Model shows that if everybody started out with equal money in a fair economy, the outcome tends toward one person holding all of the money. The cool graphical simulations on this page demonstrate why.
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In real life people die.
I know. Now what?
Yup! That is why salary increase always is in percentage; the more you have, the more you get! 😡
This is why you want fewer ultra rich people in your country.
Oh, this is very good. Thank you for this.
Theft is the reason for wealth inequality.
This article is unbelievably stupid and completely divorced from reality.
I’m not arguing theft doesn’t happen, at all, and neither is the article. In fact, it explicitly states that the yard-sale model doesn’t represent reality, and doesn’t even claim to do so. It simply shows one underlying phenomenon where wealth accumulates naturally in a random system.
Theft is also an equalizer.
I think the fact is most people wouldn’t do certain work if they were wealthy enough to have a choice in the matter. The system relies on extreme poverty in order to coerce people into taking jobs they otherwise wouldn’t.
Yard-Sale model also explains the Network Effect: People will flock to where the masses are because they will have a higher access to interact with folks than in isolated networks. Thus silos will eventually emerge: See Meta+Discord, etc…
Another simulation… that’s mainstream in american society… Landlords Game – IE what’s now Monopoly. By definition everyone starts with the same amount of money, and it ends with one person massively ahead and everyone else going bankrupt.
Well yes, but have you tried just throwing the board across the room when that one person gets massively ahead and you land on Pacific avenue with a hotel on it?
Yes, if you make your economy “people with money gain more money” then this is the endgame
Nah I’m built different.
You’ve demonstrated exactly how the system works. Statistically a few players will be lucky and become very rich. They’ll be looked at as “built different”. All the other poor players will try to emulate them as if they can beat the system by achieving some virtue like working hard enough or having innate skill rather than realize the system is mathematically impossible to beat.
The highest highs, the lowest lows.
I’m an idiot
And you only had to win at a 60% rate. Less than I expected
It’s baked in because we choose capitalism
Absolutely, and the headline here isn’t that extreme wealth inequality is not the result of human nature, greed, or anything. It’s actually an emergent mathematical property of the system itself. It’s unavoidable, even if everybody acts honorably. Proof by physicists that capitalism is wack.
Hard not to keep reading with such a nicely built article! Thsnks bud :)
Great article thanks for sharing!
