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luna_manarReally great article, but in particular this part should be read and understood.
Even in a perfect world without bigotry or cheaters, unregulated raw capitalism would slowly destabilize all economies. People don't understand that it is not nature's way to sustain. If society embraces jungle individualism, it will fall. That isn't to knock nature: social darwinism isn't an evil thing per se--unless what you want is a strong community and healthy economy. This has been proven time and time again in various MMORPG economies, where God-Admins regularly adjust the availability of goods to prevent inflation and keep the game playable for everyone. That doesn't keep people from becoming filthy rich in these games if they work at it and adapt to all the changes. What it does do is give new players (who start out poor) a reasonable expectation of becoming affluent and that expectation motivates them to play the game ("work") towards their desired game goals, instead of trying to cheat or hack the game. If the admins did not do this, the only people who would play the game for any amount of time would be the already filthy rich, and cheaters. In a well-run MMORPG, most people are "middle class." They don't play avidly enough to be in the top 10, but they play enough to have fun and see most everything there is to see in the game, hang out with their friends and have a good time.
The rich and poor must intersect in a large middle class for this real-life game of economics to be playable, and such a middle class cannot exist without rules in place to prevent natural wealth-drifts from piling up too high.
Even in a perfect world without bigotry or cheaters, unregulated raw capitalism would slowly destabilize all economies. People don't understand that it is not nature's way to sustain. If society embraces jungle individualism, it will fall. That isn't to knock nature: social darwinism isn't an evil thing per se--unless what you want is a strong community and healthy economy. This has been proven time and time again in various MMORPG economies, where God-Admins regularly adjust the availability of goods to prevent inflation and keep the game playable for everyone. That doesn't keep people from becoming filthy rich in these games if they work at it and adapt to all the changes. What it does do is give new players (who start out poor) a reasonable expectation of becoming affluent and that expectation motivates them to play the game ("work") towards their desired game goals, instead of trying to cheat or hack the game. If the admins did not do this, the only people who would play the game for any amount of time would be the already filthy rich, and cheaters. In a well-run MMORPG, most people are "middle class." They don't play avidly enough to be in the top 10, but they play enough to have fun and see most everything there is to see in the game, hang out with their friends and have a good time.
The rich and poor must intersect in a large middle class for this real-life game of economics to be playable, and such a middle class cannot exist without rules in place to prevent natural wealth-drifts from piling up too high.
