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Comment by notch656a | Hacker News Reader

It may also be the case that a community more inclined towards socialism ('sharing any bounty') doesn't fair as well, and is disproportionately likely to be poor. Not saying that's the case, but it's one possible explanation of why poor communities would disproportionately exhibit that behavior.

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I honestly think you have it in reverse. If you and your community are poor, the only way to survive is through cooperation. The folks that didn't participate? You don't see them because they didn't survive.

So yes, you see cooperative behaviors in the poorest of communities. Because other behaviors at that income level are incompatible with life!

I noticed you countered by using 'cooperation', a word found nowhere in my above comment. I do not think this is an accident, and calling me to have it 'in the reverse' of a word I never said is no doubt a deliberate and misleading framing on your part, although I admit it is rather clever

? I used cooperation as a synonym for sharing the bounty, which is think is perfectly reasonable. Please assume good faith in discussions here. HN is run differently than most internet fora.

Chicken/egg. Populations that share poverty traits practice collectivism to survive. But collectivism is a local maximum that prevents stronger traits from capturing benefit, and thus inhibits them from taking hold.

In the long run, non-collectivist populations develop an advantage through hard times and environments. Collectivist populations subsist, and nothing more.

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