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Comment by gruez

11 hours ago

That's exactly the problem. At the end of the day, unless you increase production of "stuff" (or coconuts), there isn't going to be magically more "stuff" (or coconuts) to go around just because people are shuffling "stuff" (or coconuts) around.

Not for coconuts, but in the real world, most products have economies of scale. If one rich guy has 99% of the money, the entire economy will be structured to serve his needs and yet nothing he buys will reach economies of scale. He just doesn't care to have that many Rolexes. So production methods will be fairly inefficient.

But if everyone has a bit of money, stuff can get mass produced, which actually makes for much greater total welfare, because the production methods are just a lot more efficient.

I don't understand what compels you to continue down this line of thought when its obvious flaws have been so clearly elaborated by other commenters.

  • I think you are more than capable of understanding what compels them, it's just not a very fun conclusion and one you'd rather not draw.