Duh Economics

Many people wonder what exactly we are talking about when we say we want to create paradise on Earth. This is a complex idea that requires many conversations and many voices.

Alas, many of those voices cannot be heard because they are too busy trying not to starve or meeting their other basic needs; thus, they are unable to have conversations about what paradise might look like. We need to make sure that the people of this planet are secure enough to engage in a conversation about what the next step of human civilization might look like.

Getting everyone to the table is a prerequisite to creating paradise on Earth

How do we do that? It’s actually pretty fucking simple. Eight men own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world's population. Inequality is higher than it has ever been, and it would only take a modest wealth redistribution to raise billions of people out of poverty.

Putting aside all of the very solid reasons that eight people certainly do not deserve to have as much wealth as the poorest half of our human family, after the $75,000 a year mark, money doesn’t have a clear effect on happiness. Furthermore, the higher the inequality inside a nation, the lower the happiness of all of its inhabitants. From a strictly Hedonic perspective, inequality is not making rich people any happier and is making entire nations less happy.

Inequality is one of the greatest obstacles to creating a better world for rich and poor alike.

Many people hear the word Hedonism and think of people who care more about themselves than others. But the data is fairly conclusive (as is the wisdom of pretty much all of the Hedonist philosophers over the last 3000 years) in saying that raising the standard of living of others is perhaps the very best way to raise our own standard of living. Even if you are a billionaire.

How surprising.