I am not sure that example fully makes sense. If trade is possible then two people with 11 units of resources can get together and do a cost 20 project. That is why companies have shares, they let people chip in so you can make a Suez Canal even if no single person on Earth is rich enough to afford a Suez Canal.
I suppose in extreme cases where everyone is on or near the breadline some of that “Stag Hunt” vs “Rabbit Hunt” stuff could apply.
Ah, I meant something like people have 11 units of resources, but they need ~10 to survive, so 10 of them would have to invest all their savings… which is unlikely to happen, because coordination is hard.
You are right that companies with shares are the way to overcome it. I was thinking deeper in history, where e.g. science could only happen because someone had a rich sponsor. Without the rich sponsors, science probably would not have happened; Newton would be too busy picking the apples. Only a small fraction of rich people becomes sponsors of science, but it’s better than nothing.
Perfect equality could mean that if somehow things go wrong, they will go equally wrong for everyone, so no one will have the slack necessary to find the way out… is my intuition about this scenario.
I am not sure that example fully makes sense. If trade is possible then two people with 11 units of resources can get together and do a cost 20 project. That is why companies have shares, they let people chip in so you can make a Suez Canal even if no single person on Earth is rich enough to afford a Suez Canal.
I suppose in extreme cases where everyone is on or near the breadline some of that “Stag Hunt” vs “Rabbit Hunt” stuff could apply.
Ah, I meant something like people have 11 units of resources, but they need ~10 to survive, so 10 of them would have to invest all their savings… which is unlikely to happen, because coordination is hard.
You are right that companies with shares are the way to overcome it. I was thinking deeper in history, where e.g. science could only happen because someone had a rich sponsor. Without the rich sponsors, science probably would not have happened; Newton would be too busy picking the apples. Only a small fraction of rich people becomes sponsors of science, but it’s better than nothing.
Perfect equality could mean that if somehow things go wrong, they will go equally wrong for everyone, so no one will have the slack necessary to find the way out… is my intuition about this scenario.