0.15 magnitudes more in a fortnight, not bad.
Even though I lost 8% due to a crappy mistake at one point.
Anyway, I listened to a couple of weeks old Sam Harris podcast yesterday. Before that I've always believed in meritocracy. But in diverse societies, the outcome of meritocracy is going to be equally diverse. Those who end up at the low end of the spectrum either don't have much to offer the other ones, or don't get paid doing what they are good at. For instance, someone exceptional at quilting won't get as nice a paycheck as someone exceptional at corporate law.
I never realized there was a problem with that. Well, in non-diverse societies, like the one that Sweden used to constitute, it's not a big problem. In very diverse societies, like the US or Sweden nowadays, it means that the idiots are going to take note of that there is nothing they can do to get ahead.
I think that's why so many people with university degrees don't understand jack, which is why politics, gender issues, immigration, school system and so many other things are poorly handled.
I don't think meritocracy is stoppable. The smart will find a way to get ahead. The only way is to tax the rich people, so the society is allowed to function. And as something like 85% of the capital gains in the world are made on the stock markets, I suppose the best way is to reduce tax om jobs and increase it on capital and resource transactions.
The only issue I have with that is that smart people – being smart – is going to start moving capital into secret exchanges where tax agencies have a hard time reaching them. And legislators might be scared of pissing investors off, as they are so very powerful. And which country would want to go first? Without a type-1 civilization, it might not be possible.
It's also something that is pretty hard to explain to someone: "you will have to give to these people, because they are too dumb to make much themselves". Perhaps better is to say: "the society as we know it today is going to break unless you pay". Gated community is not the way anybody wants to live, if they have a choice.
Another problem is that those that will have to the explaining are idiot politicians. Sweden's prime minister is a welder...
A third problem is that Sweden has gone the opposite way. Tax on jobs is sky-high, but tax on capital is zero. Even rich, old social democrats have been complaining for decades. Turning this around will take decades.
So it's pretty badass to make 0.15 magnitudes in a fortnight. It's me and the rest of the investors in the world that are bad asses. Taxation of bad asses might be a temporary alleviation to the ongoing shattering of society.
