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Notes -
A fun thought experiment article, but it has some flaws.
This line especially sent me to WTF-istan:
That's a category error (social vs economic system) wrapped in a demonstrably false statement about capitalism. It's assertions like these that make me "smh" about crypto bros' economic literacy.
I also think there's a misunderstand of macro level data in the article. Many things can be true at once:
But but but "wealth inequality" one might counter. The US has this horrible Gini coefficient. Well, let's look at the Top 10 most equitable income countries on earth based on the Gini:
Are we really going to pretend that any of those countries - The Netherlands included! - have social, economic, and political conditions that represent a better life or life possibilities than the United States?
Because I am a fan of steelmanning, I'll point out this post - today! - from Marginal Revolution which has a lot to say about status games in wealth societies.
The conclusions are pretty interesting and heterodox. But there's an easy lesson to draw at the meta level; don't play status games. Make money in order to support yourself and your family, save for the future, and then to pursue things you generally enjoy. If you're making money to buy status, you're playing a negative geometric mean game (i.e. from the article linked in the post I am replying to) and you're almost certainly going to "lose" over the long term - or hit the jackpot and be someone rather famous (which is a loss in its own right if you ask me).
The more I think about it, the more I think the "the economy isn't working" arguments that are in vogue on both sides of the political spectrum today are category errors that conflate a lot of modern anti-social habits with a mysterious yet central "flaw" in capitalism. Capitalism is a means of efficiently trading resources to order to generate economic growth. Imperfect as it may be, it's the best thing we've come up with a species. But capitalism will not - and has no role in - making you feel good about yourself in society. That's a far trickier situation that involved politics, community, and personal values systems.
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