On
4/11/14, 10:44 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
622 × 443 -
dltk-teach.com
Then some poultry husbandry professor got
a bright idea. Instead of
breeding chickens by the individual, he bred and selected them
by the cage,
so that it was the best CAGES that got to parent the next
generation.
If you want to extend this metaphor to democratic capitalism, then
the cages that get to parent the next generation are the
successful corporations. They get to define what is meritorious
by controlling the wealth and by having the means to lobby the
government. They also get to choose the individuals in the cage
(their hires). Note the selection criteria for the cages is also
`their' criteria (e.g. stock price), not some multi-objective
criteria that would perhaps better serve the whole set pool of
people that are caged-up, as it were.
If you want to interpret the metaphor more literally, then I think
you have to imagine there are central planners, such as in the
U.S.S.R. Otherwise there is not the distinction between the
breeders and the bred.
If I'm a super chicken and I'm looking across the aisle at which
cages are being selected, I may dial back my ruthless pecking so
that the more ordinary chickens add a few eggs to the cage total.
I mean, I'm a super chicken so I can size-up that situation. Keep
the peace in the cage by making it clear to the other chickens
know they could end up dead, or half dead, but without actually
doing it. I'll also estimate that my offspring will be pretty
good at laying eggs and at pecking, if it comes to that, and that
this can continue. And, if I'm planning things out well enough, I
may have counted how many cages are at my facility and done some
arithmetic to guess at how many eggs it produces, and use that as
a guess for the demand for eggs. If there is only a need for 1000
eggs, why should I participate in a process that can yield 100,000
eggs? That would undermine the grand plan above.
Marcus
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