College of
Business
Administration
College of
Business
Administration
The Winner-Take-All Society
Facilitated by: Katherine Brande and Sean Brooke
1. What does it mean to be a 'winner' in life? What elements are required to be a 'winner' in your 'good society'?
2. Could everyone be a winner or does winning have to be at the expense of someone else losing? In a free-market capitalist society, can everyone be a winner? How will you ensure that everyone is a winner in your 'good society'--or is that even a worthwhile goal?
3. Do you agree that society's total income would be higher if fewer people competed in winner take all markets and chose other occupations? (Page 102). If so, how would you convince people to choose other occupations? Would higher total income solve the disparity between the very rich and the very poor?
4. Reference page 159-160. Is a diminished opportunity for late bloomers, especially low-income, a fair distribution of scarce educational resources? If so, how would you equalize this in your good society?
5. Do you agree that as the income inequality grows the prices of luxury items will rise and become even further out of reach for the common income earner?
6. Reference page 215. Do you agree that several hundred thousand dollars is far beyond what most families would need to meet necessities? Where would you place that dollar limit? How would you determine that dollar limit?
7. On page 229-230, the author quotes Mickey Kaus, "An especially precious type of equality-equality not of money but in the way we treat each other and live our lives-seems to be disappearing." Would greater equality in the allocation of resources result in greater equality in the way we treat each other?
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