OT: Do people think that you get rich by being selfish? An internationa study. across a

Anthony William Sloman

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Jan 18, 2022, 9:21:27 PM1/18/22

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Today's Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences has an interesting paper from Norway and Sweden

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/119/3/e2109690119.full.pdf

America comes out as odd, which isn't surprising granting its gross economic inequality.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

Cydrome Leader

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Jan 19, 2022, 7:22:16 PM1/19/22

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What was the interesting part?

Anthony William Sloman

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Jan 19, 2022, 8:21:06 PM1/19/22

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You will never know.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney

amdx

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Jan 19, 2022, 10:44:15 PM1/19/22

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So, all those poor people are ask,

“In US,one of the main reasons for the rich being richer
than the poor is that the rich have been more selfish in life thanthe
poor.”

And these poor people say, (5) I strongly agree! Is there really any
knowledge there? Can you define selfish, and what would a selfish lifestyle

look like? What would a "more selfish" lifestyle look like. Because
apparently the rich have been "more selfish" in their life than the poor.

Are there poor people that are selfish, I'm sure there are. Why aren't
they rich.

Mikek

It got better,
"The data were collected on a discrete 5-point ordinal scale from
“strongly agree” to “strongly
disagree” and assigned numerical values from 1 (strongly dis-agree) to 5
(strongly agree)."

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Anthony William Sloman

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Jan 20, 2022, 1:14:47 AM1/20/22

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On Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 2:44:15 PM UTC+11, amdx wrote:
> On 1/18/2022 8:21 PM, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
> > Today's Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences has an interesting paper from Norway and Sweden
> >
> > https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/119/3/e2109690119.full.pdf
>
>
>
> >
> > America comes out as odd, which isn't surprising granting its gross economic inequality.
> So, all those poor people are ask,
>
> “In US,one of the main reasons for the rich being richer
> than the poor is that the rich have been more selfish in life than the
> poor.”
>
> And these poor people say, (5) I strongly agree! Is there really any

> knowledge there? Can you define selfish, and what would a selfish lifestyle.

It's selfish to hang onto money for luxuries for yourself when it could be spent on buying better out comes for the less well off.

Even the most unselfish of countries are happy with some income inequality, but the US has a very high level of income inequality for a a country as rich as it is.

It doesn't even have universal health care.

> look like? What would a "more selfish" lifestyle look like. Because
> apparently the rich have been "more selfish" in their life than the poor.

Being able to buy adequate medical insurance when the poor can get bankrupted by an unexpected illness looks fairly selfish to outside observers.

> Are there poor people that are selfish, I'm sure there are. Why aren't they rich.

You've got to get an expensive education to get at the best-paying jobs. In America wealth is more heritable than height. This isn't true of more equitable societies - and there are quite a few.

> It got better,
> "The data were collected on a discrete 5-point ordinal scale from
> “strongly agree” to “strongly
> disagree” and assigned numerical values from 1 (strongly dis-agree) to 5
> (strongly agree)."

So how would you have done it?

It got published in the Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences. People who know more about the subject than you do liked it.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney