Brexit, Trump and the Ultimatum Game
Brexit, Trump and the Ultimatum Game
One of the most interesting experiments in economics is known as the ultimatum game. It deftly gets at a fundamental truth of human nature…
Found this article from 2016 and thought that it is actually a good theory of where we are now as a society.
The rest are my thoughts on this:
The ultimatum game is an experiment a dealer has a 100$ and they are able to offer you any split of the money they like and keep the rest for themselves. If you reject the offer no one gets any money. It has been shown that after increasingly unfair offers people tend to reject the offer even though it isn't a rational move.
People seem to be in a place where they see the benefits of society are unequally distributed and are becoming more willing to throw out the whole system even if it comes at huge cost to them.
We are seeing the same thing with what is happening in New Caledonia with the riots or with even with just people moving off established social media.
It seems like level of awfulness that makes people willing to just say fuck it all is different for everyone but with more occurrences of this happening I do think we are reaching a tipping point on a global scale.
This is actually a part of the reason why I believe countries are starting to regulate social media is so that people aren't reminded of these problems as often.
For example China recently made a law that is going to repress showing wealth on social media. So this is an attempt to hide the problem instead of actually facing it.
This is also related to the US election. Rationally people should choose Biden over Trump but according to the polls it seems like it being the "rational" choice isn't enough.