<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 9:53 PM, Samantha Atkins </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:sjatkins@gmail.com" target="_blank">sjatkins@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>There is no reason in
reality that the relative income of intelligent agents (people for
now) should be confined to some arbitrary narrow range relative to
one another. </div></blockquote><div><br></div><font size="4">I'm not talking about "should", I'm not talking about morality, I'm just saying when the gap between the rich and the poor gets large social instability occurs. And when the 62 richest are equal to the 3.5 BILLION poorest I wouldn't call that gap "narrow". That huge gap is a problem, I'm not saying I have a solution to the problem I'm just saying those who think "Income inequality is a complete non-problem" are<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>kidding themselves. Maybe it shouldn't be a problem but it WILL be a problem.</font><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Do we want to limit an Elon Musk to
no more value creation than some arbitrary factor times the average
value created by persons of his generation and society? What for?<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>Or do we want to limit the amount of the wealth he produced that he
can personally control? </div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"></font><font size="4">It doesn't matter what we want if we can't get what we want and if civilization is in turmoil nobody is going to get what they want.</font></div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>I would want rationally to
see that person expert in increasing value/wealth to have as much of
it to multiply as possible. </div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">I would want that too but when it's already 62 verses 3.5 BILLION and the trend is pushing hard to make things even more lopsided it's likely that neither of us are going to get what we want. </div> </font> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Under accelerating change I would expect and increase in
income/wealth inequality. Those who avail themselves of it earlier and/or better will have their efforts multiplied more, including efforts that have economic consequences.</div></blockquote><div> </div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">That is completely true, and it's not just in the USA, in every nation on the planet the gap between the rich and the poor is growing and it's growing about as fast as the rate that technological ability is growing. A</font></div><font size="4"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">nd there is</font><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> no way,</div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> absolutely no way that </font><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">gap </div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">won't produce <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">very </div></font><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">unpleasant situations for rich and poor alike</font></div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">. I don't know how to fix the gash in the Titanic's hull but at least I know it's a problem and it shouldn't be ignored. </font></font></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">></div> is the perceived "problem" that more money might buy more
political favor? Well the answer to that is that government's
should have no favors to sell</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">I agree in theory and at one time I would have agreed in practice too. I still think that if we were starting from scratch and civilization was organized by means of privately produced law and private protection agencies we'd be richer happier more peaceful and better educated than we are now, but the trouble is we're not starting from scratch, we're very very VERY far from scratch. I just don't have the confidence that I once did that you can get there from here. </font></div><font size="4"> </font></div><div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>It is not the
fault of the wealthy that government has so gotten out of hand that
it controls aspects of about everything in our lives. </div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Who's fault it was is irrelevant. If there is too much steam in a boiler it's going to blow up regardless of whose fault it was for letting the pressure get that high. Let future historians theorize about whose fault it was, right now we have far more pressing concerns that need solutions. </font></div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Nor that it
has so drained the economy that despite how much it has taken for so
long it has put (US) us nearly $20 trillion in debt</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"></font><font size="4">That reminds me of something from another thread. Under Democrat Bill Clinton the government ran a SURPLUS in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Republican George Bush was in power in 2002 and the government ran a deficit that year and has been running a deficit every year since. Ronald Reagan never managed to balance the budget for even one year, but Clinton did it for 4. </font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4"> John K Clark</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div><div><br><br></div></div></div>
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