Comments | fizzycyst: politics imitates poker

fizzycyst

politics imitates poker

May 25, 2010 09:55

It occurred to me recently that the a certain element of human nature seems to play a role in both politics and the subculture of poker players. Actually, it is likely that there are many such aspects of human nature, but there is one in particular that I find interesting right now ( Read more... )

politics, poker

Comments 2

(The comment has been removed)

fizzycyst May 26 2010, 14:46:16 UTC

- one libertarian/economist view is that even though the income gap is wider than it used to be, and continues to widen, poor people are still much better off than before.

I guess that's correct, but I think it is something of a straw man argument - If I feed my servants scraps from my table and I start eating better food, then they will get better scraps, but that doesn't mean I am treating them any more fairly.

- one problem wrt redistribution of wealth in the US is that it presumes that someone 'deserves' the wealth. imo most americans, even the poor ones but especially the rich ones, are entitled pricks, and trying to ascertain the worthier of the two is like trying to decide whether to push a pot to puggy pearson or russ hamilton.
This I totally agree with. In fact, it is probably a better statement of my a large part of my thesis. The only thing I'd add from my post is that people tend to mistake hard work or talent for luck. Feeling entitled isn't so annoying when the person in question truly earned that feeling, but in ( ... )

anonymous May 26 2010, 19:00:23 UTC

I guess that's correct, but I think it is something of a straw man argument - If I feed my servants scraps from my table and I start eating better food, then they will get better scraps, but that doesn't mean I am treating them any more fairly.i mostly agree, except that I don't know what it means to be 'fair'. maybe another question is, are you treating them better than before? or maybe better phrased: are they getting better treatment than before? or are they in a better place? has it become better or worse to be a servant than a serf? if i a take a dump on your lawn but it turns out there are diamonds on the soles of my poop, are you happy or sad about this ( ... )