[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Feb 13, 2008 12:40 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Rafal writes
>
> >> Would in fact you be in favor of an "improvement" in technology
> >> or in society that caused each person earning D dollars to rise
> >> to wealth  e^D dollars?   True, everyone would be vastly richer,
> >> by my God, the gap between the rich and the poor would become
> >> truly astronomical!  Could you stand it?
> >
> > ### You mean, I would have more money (inflation-adjusted, I assume?)
> > than was made in the whole history of the Earth, maybe even in the
> > whole galaxy?! That's a no-brainer!
> >
> > I would be genuinely baffled by anybody who would refuse his e^D
> > dollars only so that Mr Gates doesn't get e^(D+10e10) dollars. This
> > would be painfully stupid, not to mention criminally destructive.
>
> But I guess it depends on your values. If inequality is more important
> than actual wealth (beyond food, shelter, clothing, and entertainment,
> I presume), then it will make a number of people ill to even think
> about the disparity.
>
### That refusing the deal would be destructive (in the sense on
causing the continuation of literally billions of premature deaths,
suffering from malnutrition, curable disease, etc.) is a fact, quite
independent of values. I make a motion that choosing such immense
atrocities be made criminal. Choosing that we live in misery and die
wretchedly instead of luxuriating in material paradise would be, for
anybody who cares the least whit about other humans' wellbeing,
irrational in the extreme.

Lee, don't try to understand envious people - they are different from
you and me :)

Rafal