[extropy-chat] Why I am No Longer a Libertarian Either...

[Robert Lindauer]

Dan Clemmensen wrote:

> I can find many examples in my own personal experience to support both 
> analyses. I think we should work together to build a bottom-up 
> approach to this analysis, with specific exemplars rather than 
> abstract populations. We have Korean emigrants who are now 
> millionaires, and we have bright black ghetto-born guys who are 
> sentenced to life in prison. Stereotypes. We also have black ghetto 
> kids who make it big time, and Korean emigrants who die in poverty. 
> Not stereotypes, but real people.
>

Wouldn't the revelant question be a simple statistical one.  Of the 
extant millionaires, how many had each and what qualities.

I'm going to make an a priori guess: far and away the most important 
factor for becoming a millionaire in the United States is having 
millionaire parents.  I actually think this matter is decided 
empirically too.  Luck is only a very small factor as is skill or IQ, 
etc.  Overwhelmingly inheriting money is the best way to ensure your own 
wealth.

In clinical trials, you'd find which factors were most significant by 
finding which factors were found in the most cases and which factors 
found in other cases didn't produce the effect in question.  If wealth 
were like cancer for instance, you'd rule out sugar-eating after you 
found that 100% of all americans ingest sugar, whereas if you found that 
of lung cancer victims, 90% smoked cigarettes (I don't know what the 
stat is) and of the cigarette smoking population 30% got cancer you'd 
say "there's a strong correlation between cigarette smoking and cancer."

Here we have the same question put economically.

> Challenge to Avantguardian: Is there anything society can or should do 
> to mitigate the obstacles facing people who don't have the right 
> qualities to succeed?
>
> Challenge to Samantha: how can we help those who are not succeeding 
> without stifling initiative?