One thing that always bothers me about wealth distribution is that you can't simply move wealth around and expect things to get better. People who have wealth are going to be better with that wealth than people who don't. They grew up with wealthy people, have managed the wealth for a long time, have witnessed mistakes and successes, and overall have spent a lot of time contemplating wealth.
If you take that wealth and move it to the average person, even if their fundamental intelligence is equivalent, their experience, education, and exposure is going to be a lot lower.
"They're worried about maintaining a democratic society, where everyone gets roughly an equal say in how things go."
It's an unpopular opinion, but I don't think that everyone should have a roughly equal say in how things go. The average person isn't as well equipped to deal with large problems as the elite are. Everyone has different specialties, and different volumes of abilities. You wouldn't let an intern have an equal say as a senior engineer when designing the core infrastructure. You especially wouldn't let the janitor have an equal say - he's got no experience in desiging such things!
I'm always very uneasy about equality talks because all people are not equally suited to make global policy decisions. Nor are they equally incentivized to make the most informed and rational decisions.
I'm not saying that there isn't a problem or that we shouldn't do anything about it, but I am saying that I disagree with an egalitarian approach. We want the majority of decisions to be made by people who understand what they are deciding and have lots of experience, not to be made by individuals who mostly understand the topic from a single reddit thread. We want to make sure that the incentives of the people in power are aligned with the people who are not in power, but leveling the playing field is not an approach I find valuable.
If you take that wealth and move it to the average person, even if their fundamental intelligence is equivalent, their experience, education, and exposure is going to be a lot lower.
"They're worried about maintaining a democratic society, where everyone gets roughly an equal say in how things go."
It's an unpopular opinion, but I don't think that everyone should have a roughly equal say in how things go. The average person isn't as well equipped to deal with large problems as the elite are. Everyone has different specialties, and different volumes of abilities. You wouldn't let an intern have an equal say as a senior engineer when designing the core infrastructure. You especially wouldn't let the janitor have an equal say - he's got no experience in desiging such things!
I'm always very uneasy about equality talks because all people are not equally suited to make global policy decisions. Nor are they equally incentivized to make the most informed and rational decisions.
I'm not saying that there isn't a problem or that we shouldn't do anything about it, but I am saying that I disagree with an egalitarian approach. We want the majority of decisions to be made by people who understand what they are deciding and have lots of experience, not to be made by individuals who mostly understand the topic from a single reddit thread. We want to make sure that the incentives of the people in power are aligned with the people who are not in power, but leveling the playing field is not an approach I find valuable.