Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell are researchers at the Brookings Institution, one of the leading public-policy think tanks in Washington, D.C. In 1995 they developed a computer model of human behavior on an isolated economic landscape called "Sugarscape" where people were placed in an area containing only randomly distributed sugar. The accumulation of sugar was the substitute for survival and the excess of sugar, wealth. The people could look for sugar, move, and eat sugar. Some genetic variations were put in like varying vision, metabolic need and life expectancy. They found that sugar (wealth) trended towards inequality and their conclusion was that inequality in wealth was an inherent quality of uncontrolled economic systems. Inequality is emergent, that is spontaneous within the system and not a function of the individual characteristics that make up its components.
I wonder if these guys think they are just the people to step in and fix this unfortunate natural imbalance.
"Constantly amazed by the obvious." That used to be a definition of sociology but perhaps it is an emergent phenomenon among think tanks.
I wonder if these guys think they are just the people to step in and fix this unfortunate natural imbalance.
"Constantly amazed by the obvious." That used to be a definition of sociology but perhaps it is an emergent phenomenon among think tanks.
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