Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals (2012)

Re:Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, re... by johnchristopher on Sunday April 10, 2016 @04:59AM (#11465478)

> You should research all tenets of basic income including the economic side of it by getting the opinion of actual economists on it before you make your decision. If you're not properly considering an idea then that leaves room for personal biases.

There is now on HN enough discussions of and references to basic income that it would take half a lifetime to ponder it all.

The only take away from this huge corpus of advices, opinions and reasoning is that economists - just like everyone else - heavily suffer from biases that trickle down to the laymen and that economic science is burdened with many theories that raise so many internal and external contradictions that the only way to see if any theory holds at least a grain of truth is to implement it and then spend the next half century explaining why it should have worked and why it didn't.

In my misinformed opinion it all boils down to two problems: greed and psychopaths are ruining it for everyone else on a massive scale.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, re... by forthefuture on Sunday April 10, 2016 @06:16AM (#11465618)

I'd argue that greed is natural and that the economic system we've invented is more toxic. You can't fix greed, because greed is just a term "outsiders" use for people who act in their own self interest.

People should be greedy. There just needs to be a system in place that aligns the greed of individuals with utility for humanity. I can imagine such a system, so I'm pretty optimistic for the future.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, re... by vibrio on Sunday April 10, 2016 @06:50AM (#11465695)

I agree that some level of 'greed' is good just like other animal-level motivations (anger, lust, etc). The problem is that unchecked they can be consuming make for poor decisions in the long view. Plus, they don't need to be legislatively encouraged, as they will always be present in humans in strong form.

[ Parent | on HN ]