Do you have any data to back that up?

> Global poverty at 100-year lows, US murder rate half the 90s, you’re more likely to die from obesity than starvation or violence. Objectively the cushiest moment in human history.

Averages are just that - averages. They say nothing about any given individual’s experience. And probabilities aren’t assurances of a particular outcome. Just because the average person is more likely to face obesity than starvation doesn’t mean that there aren’t millions of people facing starvation in the world. Your argument is based on an incorrect use of statistics.

Very well said, thank you for this. I would add though, that money (or lack thereof) causes unhapiness as well, because people want to live how "they" live on Instagram, and they can't.

Very well said. It's little wonder that nationalism and fascism are on the rise. Nature is healing.

Ah thanks for putting it into the necessary/sufficient vocab. Makes so much more sense to explain it that way.

Yeah, and like, a nontrivial amount of it tbqh

won't someone think of the insurance companies?

More like most people are dragging a cruise ship through a desert while being baited with the possible opportunity to belong to those enjoying the endless buffets and on-board water park.

This whole "should we ration so everybody gets some" is complete BS. There is an abundance of resources that are concentrated to a few and the rest made to suffer. We don't have to ration, we have to prevent the greedy from hogging it all. It's quite the opposite.

> balancing self optimization and social optimization

A person in a society has a right to the minimum of essential ordinary resources (food, shelter, clothing) to function as a general matter. (We have a right to pursue other goods, and in some cases a right to them once had, but we cannot say we have a right to them per se and before the fact. We have to be careful to distinguish between the two, as undisciplined and entitled people consumed by appetite tend to be unprincipled and like to inflate the list of “essentials” in self-serving ways. There’s certainly a pathology of envy at work as well, and we should in no way naturalize envy.)

In a situation of scarcity where there isn’t enough for everyone (which does not apply to the developed world), there is no solution that could satisfy that right universally. There is therefore no injustice committed when such basic resources are not distributed accordingly. Whoever gets their share gets it; whoever doesn’t simply doesn’t. You would expect competition here. Now, you could be charitable and self-sacrificial and give up your own share for another, but you have no such obligation to do so, and thus no one has the right to your share. Such charity would be an extraordinary act that transcends mere justice. It is entirely voluntary, even if heroic.

> and you'll have a utopia

Well no, you wouldn’t. This is the fallacy of consumerism and homo economicus. Even if everyone were rich, you would still have plenty of misery. The idea that human well-being is rooted in mere consumption - full stop - is at the root of so many ills. There is no well-being without virtue.

> Solve this dilemma accounting for the fractal parameters that go into it, and you'll have a utopia.

Progressive tax on income

Progressive wealth tax

Universal basic income

Universal healthcare

Housing as a human right

Done

It’s hard to believe that even the billionaires are flourishing.

Musk certainly doesn’t seem to be a poster child for eudaimonia, being allegedly addicted to drugs.