The investment game, Inflation and the cost of goods.

[Hoofhurr]

Nah I just think it's funny that one of the American dreams is to become rich through effort and work but what would the country look like if everyone worked their asses off to become rich and actually achieved it. What would that reality look like?

Maull is making the argument that wealth is relative and how wealthy one is must be tied into how not-as-wealthy others are. That basically concedes to the notion that not everyone can be rich in the monetary sense and wealth almost needs to form a pyramid to be defined.

Slamz makes the argument that true value is found in things that take work to manufacture but things that took a shitload of work to make like the first car, now take a good deal less work to make because of technological advances which is why cars tend not to hold their value as well as houses but sure seem nice if you've tried to bike to work recently.

Where do our individual goals reconcile with what our goals are for civilization? I forget sometimes. Is it take care of you and yours and then worry about others?

I think so much of wealth is relative and quality of life is relative too. Do you think Americans would be happier if you could 'imprint' them with having lived in 1400s poverty like Neo was 'imprinted' with the knowledge of Kung fu? Imagine that. I think a lot of people's self worth is derived from a sense of progression in that you ended life 'ahead' of wherever you started it. What if we could just manipulate people's life experience so that everyone started out as a slave in Egypt 300bc or something and then we transported them to modern day America. People would be like, "Damn my life is pretty good."

Getting a college education and a decent job is an awesome accomplishment if you're the first person in the history of your family to go to college. If, however, both of your parents are MDs and own their respective private practices you look like a big dousche. Why is that? Doesn't the accomplishment hold the same value?

What's the deal with Master's degree being the new bachelor's degree? What happened to the value there?

I think a lot of these notions translate into MMOGs in interesting ways as well. Some of the Eh team once expressed that they derived their enjoyment from MMOGs precisely because of the feeling of progression that the level grind seems to invoke. The feeling that you can one shot a froglok that once kicked your ass is part of the 'it' that they were paying for.