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Comment by jokoon | Hacker News Reader

"embrace your suffering"

Sorry but I don't understand this.

The whole "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" meme is meaningless. Challenging one self to get pain and pretend you will feel better after is a pointless way to live life.

There is little point in climbing mount Everest. It's good for your health to practice physical activity and to occupy your mind and time. But this constant idea that we have to challenge ourselves, while we can't manage to fight inequality or climate change, shows that we're deluded.

Climate change will be the new equalizer. The right to emit co2 will be the new currency.

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> The right to emit co2 will be the new currency.

Don't hold your breath.

> Challenging one self to get pain and pretend you will feel better after is a pointless way to live life.

I don't think he meant that. He wrote: "This world breaks us all". Life is full of suffering by design. It's not going to be a sugary Hollywood movie - you will suffer. Use this experience to grow.

> The right to emit co2 will be the new currency.

Well yes, that's exactly how cap-and-trade and carbon-credits work.

Not in the us it doesn’t. The two cap and trade programs in the us do little to stop someone at the individual level from needlessly emitting - there is no economic signal to stop. Even some large emitters aren’t subject to any economic signals in rggi, and California has an odd habit of handing out allowances. In a more perfect world, you would be correct.

how do you propose we fight inequality? Inequality of outcome?

The book Radical Markets has very innovative ideas in combating inequality using market strategies. We are deluded if we don’t acknowledge Inequality is one of the biggest challenges facing us that we have to solve.

There's solutions to inequality but human nature ruins all those solutions. Solving inequality means solving human nature.

I guess this a nature fallacy? Civilization is built by humans. I don't see why human behavior could not change how civilization works. Freedom of speech is an important evolution that goes against human nature. I don't see why human instincts of domination would always prevail.

Also welfare already exists in many countries including the US, so it's an accepted thing. It needs to be accepted without shame or arguments that it's a socialist measure.

even if you have very very generous welfare (and I agree that this should exist) - it would not ever fix the inequality of outcome.

I just don't see how those who can perform literally 10x more productively than others will settle for less than an absolute top prize, and with technology being such a great amplifier - winner take all dynamics seems to be so inherent - I am not even sure what can be done?

The issue is that civilizations have also been destroyed by humans.

Its not all humans but a minority of greedy sociopathic humans make it difficult to impossible to do anything meaningful towards societal advancement and tend to ruin any sort of collectively equal society.

I hope I'm wrong but that has been my observations so far at micro to macro levels.

Challenging oneself gives people the strength to challenge the world.

I'd rather have people who go to the gym several times a week be the one's responsible for combating climate change than people who pursue meaningless pleasure (drug use, pornography) several times a week.

Except you're failing to see the difference between self-help and fighting for political progress. One is individualist, the other is societal.

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