College of Business Administration

Seminar in Business and the Good Society

Discussion Questions for April 10, 1997:

Assigned Reading:

The Winner-Take-All Society

Session Facilitators:

Lisa Albanez/Michael Degn/Susannah Evans

1. What does it mean to be a 'winner' in life? Is winning in life the ultimate goal of the individuals in our society today? What does it mean 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?

3. How are resources allocated in the winner-take-all society? How should resources, particularly human capital, be allocated in your Good Society for it to prosper?

4. What trends (i.e., technology, individual ability, public policy, etc.) contribute to the growing inequality in today's society? What does this inequality do to the economic growth of our 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. Is there a difference in the motivation (excluding the obvious monetary values) between a major league baseball team signing a big name player for a lot of money and a university hiring a renowned professor for a relatively large amount of money? Is this healthy for either institution?

7. In the Japanese work environment, many people work for one company their entire life, eliminating some of the elements needed for a winner-take-all society to grow. Does this then lower the number of competitors as well as the quality of their output?

8. It is stated that approximately 90 percent of today’s workforce feels that they are more productive than the average worker. Why do most people feel over confident in their abilities?

9. Adam Smith is quoted in the book as saying that a person's overconfidence level peaks at the same time "young people choose their professions." Do you agree with this? Is this necessarily a bad thing?

10. The authors state that once our society clearly sees what the effects our current winner-take-all market structure is doing and where it is headed that the 'necessary adjustments' to fix it won't be as hard for us to swallow. What 'necessary adjustments' do you believe are needed? Do you think they will be that easy to swallow?

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