[lbo-talk] Wealth Distribution & Kinetic Theory

Eubulides paraconsistent at comcast.net
Tue Apr 24 20:46:27 PDT 2007


----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry Monaco" <monacojerry at gmail.com>

Here is my problem. I am familiar from my college physics with the Gibbs distribution and it simply models the probability of a system being in a state X when the energy as a function of the state is at E(X).

Why should wealth distribution (in any society) follow this thermodynamic model? Is it simply an "artifact" of how we have constructed society? Surely it is not an "intended" artifact, but simply a mathematical side effect. But why should the model work in the first place for any given society? Is this a stupid question, or an epistemological mistake on my part to even ask the question.

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The last part of your last sentence, yes. Along with bad grammar a la Wittgenstein [see first sentence of second paragraph for evidence].

Ian



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