Just as when you have a fair race the top 1% of the competitors will have a better than double the completion time than the average. So to with a fair economy would you expect the top 1% best investors to own 50% of the market.

These aren't hallmarks of inequality, they are hallmarks of equality.

@freemo monopoly isn't a fair race, it's staying on the finish line and shooting everyone who approaches and claiming no one can beat your time.
"BAM! Well I guess he got exhausted..."

A racer does not approach a race thinking "ok how can I abuse any loopholes in the rules to my advantage", since the rules are strict and clear. The are no strict and clear rules to life, so we have to wait and see what people do and then judge them.

Finally ownership is different from performance. There is no skill in ownership.

@namark
It isnt abuse of loopholes, it is using the kaw as intended, the same law and tax breaks everyone else can get.

@freemo Not sure what you are referring to. I didn't say the loophole is necessary, just that i doesn't/can't exist in racing, since the rules can be set to be strict and fair. The law can't be that strict it has to allow for freedoms and potential abuse that it needs to evolve to prevent. There was a point in time where duels to death were considered fair.

@namark in racing if everyone has the same loophole available to them then it works just fine..

Say you have a race that says everyone is allowed to take a shortcut that cuts off 100 meters of the track.. If its available to everyone then you still have a fair race.

Same is true for the economy, what you call loopholes are really intentional rules in the system to make them more fair when handling edge cases. Those "loopholes" are freely available for everyone to use, so it is still fair.

@freemo See example above: a rule of the race states whoever gets to the finish line is allowed to shoot others. How is that for a fair rule? "Works just fine!".

Are you claiming that the current system has no loopholes or problems?
"It's perfect we figured it out guys, I'm smarter than anyone else is now and will ever be".

This comparing life to sports thing is real dubious... better leave it to the fascists.

@namark We have no such rule in our economy, however. The loopholes you have access to is not contigent on if your int he top 1%, as would be the case with your example. You can use the "loopholes" regardless of if you are the first to finish or not.

there are problems, big ones, but they arent so much revolving around lack of fairness in the economy, they revolve around lack of compassion for helping those who were born into a shitty start.

To go back to the analogy, a race may be fair, but obviously the children of athletes are more likely to be in the top 1% than a child of two unhealthy overweight parents... This doesnt make the race any less fair, but it does mean that there is an ethical incentive to help people who might be struggling to adopt good habits and become a winner.

The same is true for the economy. The system is pretty fair as is, but even though it is fair I do recognize an unmet ethical obligation to those born into poverty who could use better assistance to give them a better chance.

@freemo press x to doubt

I would bring up the IP laws (as the only laws a programmer know about) but I know you love proprietary software, so that's a dead end...