<story><title>You Don&apos;t Batch Cook When You&apos;re Suicidal (2020)</title><url>https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2020/07/30/the-price-of-potatoes-and-the-value-of-compassion/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WendyTheWillow</author><text>And a lot of people would be very wrong.  There’s a floor to survivability, below which you can’t keep yourself alive, but there is no ceiling.  If everyone is above the floor, there’s no reason for concern about those looking for the ceiling.&lt;p&gt;In the future we’ll pull people up to the floor, but that doesn’t require attaching a ceiling.  The will never be a successful society that substantially punishes achievement above a certain point.</text></item><item><author>lwhi</author><text>Better at sports .. but I bet there&amp;#x27;s a fairly even distribution between people who have money and don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In the future, we may view enormous disparities in wealth as evil as we do racism today.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people already do.</text></item><item><author>dcist</author><text>Some people are indeed much better. Anyone who played sports as a kid understands this. Huge differences are immediately apparent in small children. But generally, I agree that, for most life tasks, the differences between people are not enormous. Humanity could do a much better job eliminating poverty. In the future, we may view enormous disparities in wealth as evil as we do racism today.</text></item><item><author>thiago_fm</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s one big paradox.&lt;p&gt;Coming from poverty, I work with plenty of talented people, but nowhere as talented as the people I&amp;#x27;ve studied in shitty schools.&lt;p&gt;Now most of those people from my poverty times continue to be poor, because of many problems poverty brought to them. I can clearly see that, and that I was the lucky one to find a way up many times.&lt;p&gt;Yet, my new social circle believe that I&amp;#x27;m talented because of my DNA and efforts, and blame others for their poverty.&lt;p&gt;But I know that those people making &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; decisions in the view of riches are actually just trying to survive. With themselves, with the baggage they carry, and to the fact that they weren&amp;#x27;t as lucky as me.&lt;p&gt;Talent, intelligence is literally everywhere. People that are awesome and ambitious is abundant.&lt;p&gt;Nobody is really much better than others, but America post-ww2 managed to sell this idea to everyone, including many really smart and talented folks, that think they are gifted.&lt;p&gt;To sum up, nobody chooses to be poor and humanity could progress faster if we focused instead in eliminating poverty, creating more possibilities for everyone...&lt;p&gt;Than believing almost trillionaries will guide us to where we need it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>matthewmacleod</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not really sure that &amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s okay if the billionares have space palaces so long as the poor aren&amp;#x27;t literally dying&amp;quot; is the optimal economic philosophy.</text></comment>
<story><title>You Don&apos;t Batch Cook When You&apos;re Suicidal (2020)</title><url>https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2020/07/30/the-price-of-potatoes-and-the-value-of-compassion/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WendyTheWillow</author><text>And a lot of people would be very wrong.  There’s a floor to survivability, below which you can’t keep yourself alive, but there is no ceiling.  If everyone is above the floor, there’s no reason for concern about those looking for the ceiling.&lt;p&gt;In the future we’ll pull people up to the floor, but that doesn’t require attaching a ceiling.  The will never be a successful society that substantially punishes achievement above a certain point.</text></item><item><author>lwhi</author><text>Better at sports .. but I bet there&amp;#x27;s a fairly even distribution between people who have money and don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In the future, we may view enormous disparities in wealth as evil as we do racism today.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people already do.</text></item><item><author>dcist</author><text>Some people are indeed much better. Anyone who played sports as a kid understands this. Huge differences are immediately apparent in small children. But generally, I agree that, for most life tasks, the differences between people are not enormous. Humanity could do a much better job eliminating poverty. In the future, we may view enormous disparities in wealth as evil as we do racism today.</text></item><item><author>thiago_fm</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s one big paradox.&lt;p&gt;Coming from poverty, I work with plenty of talented people, but nowhere as talented as the people I&amp;#x27;ve studied in shitty schools.&lt;p&gt;Now most of those people from my poverty times continue to be poor, because of many problems poverty brought to them. I can clearly see that, and that I was the lucky one to find a way up many times.&lt;p&gt;Yet, my new social circle believe that I&amp;#x27;m talented because of my DNA and efforts, and blame others for their poverty.&lt;p&gt;But I know that those people making &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; decisions in the view of riches are actually just trying to survive. With themselves, with the baggage they carry, and to the fact that they weren&amp;#x27;t as lucky as me.&lt;p&gt;Talent, intelligence is literally everywhere. People that are awesome and ambitious is abundant.&lt;p&gt;Nobody is really much better than others, but America post-ww2 managed to sell this idea to everyone, including many really smart and talented folks, that think they are gifted.&lt;p&gt;To sum up, nobody chooses to be poor and humanity could progress faster if we focused instead in eliminating poverty, creating more possibilities for everyone...&lt;p&gt;Than believing almost trillionaries will guide us to where we need it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klabb3</author><text>Depends how much the people at the top (money-wise) are playing zero-sum games. If they are, to a large extent, engaging in asset acquisitions and passive growth of eg real estate, or monopolistic protectionism, then there’s plenty of room for others to engage in activities with positive externalities instead.&lt;p&gt;There’s no question a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to pursue their niche passions and drives, based on a bad birth lottery ticket. There’s a lot of wasted potential in countries that reduce aperture of the early success funnels.</text></comment>