| > Many people I know who have significant assets bemoan the challenges that present themselves when trying to engage in anything resembling a negotiation involving finance. If one side KNOWS you have the capability to pay more, then you're at a disadvantage. But really, a disadvantage compared to whom? There's of course the 99.99% [0] of people that simply can't have this "disadvantage" because they're not rich enough to "suffer" it. Given that the fact that the 0.01% will still be 0.01% after this terribly disadvantageous negotiation, it's not really a disadvantage. I say "fact" because it is both expected from the qualities of exponential wealth distributions, as well as evidenced from the real world where there's very little movement at the top. Then there's the specific party on the other side that KNOWS. They are of course part of the 99.99% too, so the same thing happens. Before the negotiation they are at a huge disadvantage compared to the ultra-rich, and after the negotiation they are roughly at the same disadvantage, except insignificantly less so. Say I were to go on holiday to a country where cost of living is much, much lower than at home. In some countries, at some point I'd notice I'd get "screwed over", paying 5x the price for a taxi or a drink, which is still not a significant amount to me either way. Of course I will get miffed about it at first, because of the apparent unfairness. That's natural. It's how we're wired. That deep instinctual feeling of fairness and unfairness, it's part of our primate programming. It probably used to be an important evolutionary trait for group-survival, or something. I hope that I do not need to explain that what is "natural" does not equate what is "right". In fact, to be a good person, is for a large part defined by our ability and willingness to observe, rationally criticise our base programming / urges, and decide whether or not to act on them. And thus, one would happily pay the still-cheap 5x "normal" price for a drink or taxi fare, because it's the right thing to do, and there's really nothing rationally "unfair" about it. [0] nines pulled from thin air, giving about 73 million "ultra rich" on this planet. |