Quote Originally Posted by mojo
Your solution to just have people stop being envious is clearly problematic.
Sure it is, just like everyone else's solution. Ultimately we all want the same thing... for people to be better. We're just imagining different ways of doing this when in reality nobody has a viable solution.

Sure, most of us suffer from envy at some point in our life, it is indeed human nature. But if your response to this emotion is to want other people to have less, rather then you to have more, if that's the only way for you to compete with others, then you're the one with the problem.

I'm saying "you" in the general sense, not you personally. I don't think you have a problem with envy. I don't think poop does either. I think we just have different ideas about what the actual problem is. I don't see rich people as the problem. I think that's a rather naive and unhelpful way of looking at it. Not that my ideas are any less naive, or any more helpful. You're right, simply saying "don't be envious" is not cutting it. But it seems better than saying "don't be too successful".

Just because something is a law that doesn't make it a good law.
I absolutely agree. But we can't all live by our own rules. Due to human nature, law is essential for a civilised society. Without it we don't have fair trials, we have vigilantes and witch hunts, we have the strong dominating the weak.

Of course law should be as close to perfect as we can make it. It's very far from perfect. It is used to oppress and to control. This isn't its intended purpose. Social stability is the intended purpose. So yes, I agree that laws need to change to make society better.

But... if someone is exploiting legal means to make money, then whether you think it's moral or not is irrelevant. It's legal. If we want a civilised society, then people need to live by the law, by society's morals, not their own morals.