[kardashev]

Wow! What a depraved view they have. I wonder if they would still think it was moral to limit their children to a 3rd world education because it's only fair that education (level) be equal for everyone?

Human progress is made by those who are exceptional. It is only through the efforts of exceptional people that everyone else's lives are improved. Imagine if Faraday and Einstein were forced to not publish, and even destroy their papers because it wasn't "fair" that they had discovered something that other people hadn't.

Is this view of "fairness" fair at all? Should we break the legs of a natural runner, so they can only run as fast as the average person? Should we damage the brains of the gifted so they are equal with everyone else? Rather, shouldn't people have the freedom to excel as far as they can?

The intellectually gifted should be encouraged to excel as far as they can, because their work and discoveries will cause tremendous improvements to the human condition. It would be more fair for there to be special schools for the gifted, so they are not slowed down by the lowest common denominator.

Imagine that you had the intellect to cure cancer, or make solar power more economical than fossil fuels. Now imagine that you are denied from accomplishing these things because it isn't "fair" for you to earn more money than others. Guess what? It takes tons of money to do research and development. The only reason Elon Musk is making the major improvements for humanity that he is, is because he was able to use his intellect to earn lots of money so he could do even better things.

What would become of humanity if we decided to hinder everyone to the same skill and wealth levels? What would become of progress?

[anon4]

If the country is so far in the shitter, that they can't pay for good schools for everyone, then allowing only the comparatively mega-rich to pay for mediocre education, while everyone gets nothing won't solve the problem and might even exacerbate it farther.

About 50% of people have an IQ of over 100. That makes them smarter than average. But of course, how smart you are doesn't correlate with how rich your parents are, which has a much bigger impact on your future. In that light, won't it be most fair to test people on their intelligence, then have the state seize everyone's assets once per year and redistribute it proportionally on that?

[sokoloff]

Just as I think you can't allow money to solely guide outcomes, you also can't allow intelligence to solely guide.

It's a fact that I'm somewhere on the right side of the intelligence curve. If I just laid about and waited for the state to funnel me vast sums of other people's money, society is worse off than in a world where I need to create something of value in order to be paid.

Taking away the incentive to create value (by annually confiscating the rewards) leads to a terrible outcome, and I believe a more terrible outcome than today. I agree that money has too much influence today, but that adjustments should be made methodically and carefully to prevent massive unintended consequences.