[burroisolator]

> This suggests that if I find a gold nugget while hiking, somehow that hurts society?

Yes, if they sell the gold nugget and purchase wasteful goods and services, assuming they would not have purchased those goods and services otherwise.

If you use the money to purchase a tractor so that you can grow more food, then yes, you probably are increasing global productivity. At best, it is unclear whether private jets make you a more productive human and thus increase global productivity given their enormous costs - even if you include the motivational boost that it provides to non-private jet owners who look at the private jet and work harder as a result.

[tomohawk]

When someone has money and spends it, other people benefit. Buying that jet employs how many people? Keeping that jet running employs how many people?

Why judge what people buy with their own money? Isn't hard enough to judge what you buy with your own money?

[burroisolator]

> When someone has money and spends it, other people benefit. Buying that jet employs how many people? Keeping that jet running employs how many people?

It is true that one person's spending is another person's income but that doesn't capture the waste. While wealth isn't a zero sum game, the time of the population as a whole and the low entropy (resources) of this planet is. If you employ someone to pilot your private jet, that person isn't able to do more productive things such as pilot a plane with more people on it. In capitalism, your wallet is like a vote: you get to influence how other people spend their time and how resources are allocated.

> Why judge what people buy with their own money? Isn't hard enough to judge what you buy with your own money?

I'll give the benefit of the doubt for most things. I'm sure people will judge some of my consumption as wasteful. I do think there is a threshold in which we can tell the consumer, "I think you can do better": imagine if you hired a person to burn trees all day - and I'm not talking about slash and burn agriculture or generating power using the resulting steam/heat - just literally burning trees. I'm open to be convinced that private jets are within the threshold but as of now I don't agree.

[skookumchuck]

> if they sell the gold nugget and purchase wasteful goods and services

That wasn't the premise. The premise was that Carol hurts Betty simply by having something Betty doesn't have.

[the_gastropod]

When those "things" are increasingly lobbying power, "freedom" to destroy the environment more (travel by private jet, large homes (multiple?) with always-on climate-control, large cars, etc.), Carol does hurt Betty by having these things Betty doesn't.

Nobody is particularly upset by people owning lots of money in a bank account (few speak poorly of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet). It's when people put that capital to use that they get blowback. Koch brothers, Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman, and our benevolent President and much of his cabinet are wonderful examples of the absurdities the wealthy do get away with.

[burroisolator]

I apologize for inferring more than you said, but I do think that the average case of Betty finding a gold nugget or more commonly winning a lottery ticket leads to wasteful consumption. And so it spurred me to give the answer I gave.

[skookumchuck]

> wasteful consumption

People stupidly wasting their money means they run out of it. So what if they dissipate it on hookers and blow. Nothing for you to be concerned about.

[burroisolator]

Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19529624