Saturday, February 09, 2019
Constants and variables 120, fuckheads and floss edition
Convective thought, triggered by writing "When you have enough money you don't need to spend it" at end of previous item.
There's a critical mass in lots of physical and social variables.
Simple physical example: When a windy day drops a dozen pine needles on your roof, the next windy day will blow them off. Result is zero needles most of the time. But a tree near the roof can deposit hundreds of needles. When the needles reach critical mass, they stick together and gather more. No needles ever blow away.
Simple organic example: Biofilms and flossing. You can't hope to eliminate all bacteria, and in fact you shouldn't. Flossing keeps the bacteria below the critical mass so the biofilms can't take over everything.
Question: Is there a critical mass for wealth? Can we find the threshold where the MAGNETIC POWER is so strong that the rich dickhead no longer has to spend money for ordinary expenses? The threshold where merchants find it more profitable to use the dickhead for display? The threshold where bureaucrats can't conceive of enforcing regulations, and prosecutors can't imagine filing cases?
If this threshold is fairly constant, it would be a good dividing point for confiscation, a good maximum allowable wealth.
The Islamic concept of zakat includes a threshold called nisab, but the official definition of nisab is WAY below the dickhead line. Basically if you're not in debt and have some assets, you must pay zakat. Not the same thing.
Labels: Constants and Variables, Real World Math
¶ 8:58 AM
