Two sides to every headline

Are Rich People Stupid?

Are rich people stupid? Short answer. Not all of them.

This is an installment of the “rich” series of article

There are three types of rich people.

Those that inherited it. They could be stupid, they could be not.

Those who got their money by people giving it to them voluntarily. These people are not stupid.

And those who got their money by taking money from people against their wish. These people are stupid. Because it’s unavoidable. Even smart people in this category would be stupid.

Why stupid?

Because they have no feedback. There is nothing to tell them if they are stupid or not. The results (their income) is the same either way. If they are stupid or not, nothing changes because they take the same amount of money. People do not have a choice but to give them money.

When there is no way for you to know if you are doing a good job or not then you will be stupid (perhaps ignorant). You will not know if your actions are good or not.

Is being stupid bad?

This goes back to the previous installment. To summarise here, yes, being stupid and rich is a massive problem for society at large. It makes things more expensive while at the same time making people poorer. It’s a double when people get money if they do a good job and a bad job. The resources of the world get wasted. And that makes people poorer and things more expensive.

How to make rich people not stupid?

Make their income flexible. Make their income a reflection of reality. Make their income reflect how good a job other people think they are doing. When people get feedback about the quality of the job they are doing they can adapt. They have information on which to make a decision about what they are doing (which they don’t when they take money either way).

How to make the world a better place?

Don’t make people stupid. Allow people to get feedback for the job they do. Only with feedback can waste be identified. Only with feedback can people know iof they are doing a good job. Only with feedback can people do a better job.

The more people who get feedback about their job, the more people who have a motivation to do a better job (their income goes down if they do a bad job, they get less control of resources. See previous installment) the richer we will all be and the cheaper it will be for the things we wants. A win-win.