We didn’t design them though. They evolved. What people (economists and politicians) thought they were designing is not how things turned out. The end product was a result of social forces.
Like a bunch of bees inside a beach ball, all flying in different directions: what happens to the beach ball?
Wait, does it matter that they’re bees and not just flies? Are they stinging the inside of the ball or something? Wouldn’t the forces cancel out when flying? Can they have a dance-off to decide which direction to roll the ball by crawling?
But if a bee is flying inside a ball and pushes against the side, what’s causing the ball to move relative to the earth? None of the wind can escape, it’s just air moving around inside the ball.
We didn’t design them though. They evolved. What people (economists and politicians) thought they were designing is not how things turned out. The end product was a result of social forces.
Like a bunch of bees inside a beach ball, all flying in different directions: what happens to the beach ball?
Wait, does it matter that they’re bees and not just flies? Are they stinging the inside of the ball or something? Wouldn’t the forces cancel out when flying? Can they have a dance-off to decide which direction to roll the ball by crawling?
The forces don’t cancel out completely. You get a sort of random motion, effectively Brownian motion.
Why bees and not flies? Because bees are cute.
But if a bee is flying inside a ball and pushes against the side, what’s causing the ball to move relative to the earth? None of the wind can escape, it’s just air moving around inside the ball.
When the bee bops into the wall of the ball, it transfers momentum to the ball. It’s no different from a hamster in a ball, just smaller.