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Comment by malandrew | Hacker News Reader

I would go a step further and say it’s a feature and not a bug. There are no robust ecosystems in nature where there is equality between all members of that system. The most robust ecosystems are those where you have the greatest diversity of species which correlates with inequality between them. Personally I don’t see how a modern society at scale could ever be equal and fiction. Equality really only works locally and even then has its limitations.

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I would be careful drawing analogies from nature. There is no support that shows that there is any equivalence between diversity and economic equality. On top of that if you believe it is valid draw parallels from nature, you need to explain why there should be private property, as no such concept exist in nature (as well as many of the other rules we quite happily accept).

Equality in opportunity and equality in outcome are two different things. Even that aside, asking for a baseline equality in living with dignity has nothing to do with diversity of species.

>The most robust ecosystems are those where you have the greatest diversity of species which correlates with inequality between them

I would love to know how you came to this conclusion. Different species occupy different niches when there is a robust ecosystem and there is nothing like inequality between them. There is symbiosis and inter-dependence, but I have not seen one species turn on other for "inequality".

Our societies aren't very stable and they aren't stable because of inequality that goes beyond personal ability.

I don't think many people are claiming that the goal should be "no inequality", and that's certainly not what one sees in Europe, so I don't think that argument is relevant.

Clearly society at large can still function in Europe with reduced inequality compared to America.

I rather see the opposite. A society cannot live long if it has too much inequality. From inequality comes pressure, that forces the society to adapt or break.

Military rule originates from the fact that the previous rulers thought they can suppress the population through so called guard labor. Once guard labor crosses a point, a huge portion of the population does guard labor which also puts them in the position to replace the ruler because the ruler is entirely dependent on this guard labor.

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