Comment by 47282847
4 days ago
It’s not an utopian idea to try as a society to hedge and distribute returns to all members. From a human resource perspective, it is insane (ie. costly and inefficient) to put it on the shoulders of each individual. But that’s where we are (almost; happy to live in a country with still some public services like unified healthcare and retirement funds).
Yes, you can drill your own well to have water in a society, for some. Or, you come up with the unheard-of idea of public utilities, so people can simply open a tap and enjoy. In some regions, even drink it. Personally, growing up in a lucky place like that, I have a hard time imagining to ever live in a place that required me to buy bottled water.
Yes, you can demand each member of society to learn about ETFs. Personally, I enjoy every part of life where complexity is being dealt with for me; I wouldn’t survive a day without that collaboration.
We have a choice to design society, like we have a choice to design computer systems.
> It’s not an utopian idea to try as a society to hedge and distribute returns to all members.
It's not utopian, is downright dystopian. Redistribution means forceful confiscation (through taxation) from the most productive members of society. This in practice means punishing work, innovation and creation and rewarding laziness and low productivity. This will logically lead to a less productive societies that will fall behind and be either bought out or conquered by more successful, more aggressive societies. We've seen this scenario unfolding in the EU.
> I enjoy every part of life where complexity is being dealt with for me
Me too. But I want private companies dealing with that complexity, because market competition controls them and keeps them honest, unlike governments which are monopolies happy to give people free benefits and entitlements to buy themselves their next elections.
I also want participation in such schemes to be voluntary not compulsory since this keeps people responsible, aware and educated. Compulsory schemes are widely hated and rejected, even when being a net positive otherwise.
> public utilities
My water utility is a state-granted monopoly charging outrageous prices. Same for my electricity provider. I would love to quit them, but any competition was outlawed, of course.
> you can demand each member of society to learn about ETFs. Personally
If you have time, go to an online calculator and compute how much the compounded amount taken for pension from your salary every month would be worth today if invested in an S&P500 index ETF - then compare to your projected state pension. It was eye opening to me.
It seems we live in two almost separate only thinly connected realities (*). In such cases I’ve learned that while I wouldn’t mind deepening the exchange, for that to feel worthwhile for me it would have to happen in person and not online.
(*) my definition of reality includes not only observable “facts“ that we may agree on, but also our experience of it; our perception, judgments, values etc.