Burn the Rich
Thornton, Jim
"Burn the Rich" that the North Koreans have been known to go around with glossy brochures about their ballistic missiles," Ms. Rice said in March. "They are stocking a lot of the world right now." Pyongyang's...
...Would a poor person really prefer to be absolutely poorer, just so long as everyone else was a lot poorer...
...Sure, you can understand people stealing from the rich...
...North Korea's SA-2 missile has a worldwide following, and it has deployed an estimated 600 Scud missiles within firing range of the South Korean capital, Seoul.The record with longer-range missiles is less successful...
...Nor were the findings just a verbally expressed preference, like the person who tells a poll-taker that they want to give money to charity, but in fact does not.The subjects of the experiment paid to impoverish others and went away at the end of the experiment-presumably happy-with less money as a result of their choice...
...was written by two economists, Daniel Zizzo from Oxford and Andrew Oswald from Warwick...
...Its spare parts and re-engineered launching systems are shipped across the Third World on cargo ships that have been chartered for legitimate trade...
...According to conventional economic theory and common sense-rational subjects should not spend their money that way...
...It was emphasized clearly and repeatedly that they would lose whatever they paid out...
...As they left, they backslapped in the marble-clad lift lobby and exchanged wide smiles...
...The participants knew this from the start...
...jinn Thorn ton nuns British-based iConservatives...
...I can understand why politicians and those hangers-on who expect jobs and prestige from state redistribution might buy this, but it is difficult to see why the poor would...
...Sure, envy is a powerful emotion...
...BURN THE RICH 28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR . MAY/JUNE 2002...
...Let's call it the "equity argument...
...MBY JIM THORNTON uch has been written about the harms of wealth inequality, mainly as it relates to health...
...Not all of them are arms dealers, but apart from weapons exports, the country doesn't really have much to interest people from that region...
...In 1998, North Korea's rocket program suffered a blow when a test Taedong 11 missile veered unpredictably in flight, missing major Japanese cities and landing in the Sea of Japan...
...Firms that charter ships in South East Asia say that North Korea frequently commissions vessels to bring a commodity such as sugar from the Far East to Europe, but the boats go missing for days while making unscheduled stops in places such as Libya...
...Impoverishing others really does seem to have value-no wonder socialism has such a hold on the world...
...Generally, writers of a socialist bent, having failed to show that capitalism makes the poor poorer, have turned to arguing that although the poor may be a hit richer under capitalism, they would be still better off-even without the extra wealth-so long as the rich were poorer, too, and everyone was more equal...
...Those of us who rejoice to see others get richer have work to do...
...Hmnam...
...All players were offered the chance to spend some of their winnings to reduce others' winnings...
...That's why a paper in the February 2002 issue of Annales d'Econornie et de Statistigne is interesting...
...Every flight into Pyongyang from Beijing carries businessmen from the Middle East and Africa," said a diplomat who is a frequent visitor to the country...
...At the "Axis of Evil" watering hole, another successful evening of wheeling and dealing for dictators was winding to a close.With no sign that the regime will clamp down on arms sales, the clutch of North Koreans and their shady guests celebrated hard into the night...
...But, poor people paying just to make others poorer...
...They studied people playing a game in which players won or lost by chance, but where some players were then given extra "unfair winnings...
...Pyongyang's lucrative arms exports are the result of its tinkering with Scud missiles supplied by the Soviet Union almost two decades ago...
...In one corner, the leader of a red-faced and weary group staggered to his feet, followed by his friends...
...Are People Willing to Pay to Reduce Others' Incomes...
...Although the experiment used an artificial currency, at the end of the experiment winnings were paid out in real money...
...Overall, the study's subjects paid about 20 percent of their winnings to reduce ("burn") the wealth of others...
...Down in the foyer, an official black limousine waited...
...Amazingly, though, no less than 62 percent of participants paid to reduce the other person's winnings, and the amounts were substantial...
Vol. 35 • May 2002 • No. 3
