rebuttal
the obvious rebuttal to yesterday's post is something like... and what does the rich guy do with that money? he goes out and starts companies that create jobs and the pie really does get bigger so the players really can bring more money to the table yada yada. hrm. okay. this is a thought experiment. remove the game. what would the other players have done with the money if they hadn't lost it to rich guy? they'd have put it in a mutual fund of their choice. and from there where does the money go? well it gets invested in companies that create jobs and the pie gets bigger. the distribution of the money really makes no difference to the pie. but it makes a huge difference to the pie eaters.