“To put it another way, irrationalists free-ride on the real-world material-comfort achievements of rationalists. ”
This is way too rationality-centric. People who don’t work a lot free-ride on the real-world material-comfort achievements of workaholics. People who are not creative or entrepreneurial free-ride on those who invent new products and services. There is a hell of a lot more to productivity and world accomplishments than rationality.
For example, a rational person might work much less than an irrational person who let their primitive desire to rise to the top of the tribe propel them into continuing to start new companies and increase their wealth after making their first billion, even though their second billion will make no actual difference to their standard of living. And thus that irrationally-driven billionaire might produce far more value for the world than the rationalist who quits after their first ten million to focus on consumption.
“To put it another way, irrationalists free-ride on the real-world material-comfort achievements of rationalists. ”
This is way too rationality-centric. People who don’t work a lot free-ride on the real-world material-comfort achievements of workaholics. People who are not creative or entrepreneurial free-ride on those who invent new products and services. There is a hell of a lot more to productivity and world accomplishments than rationality.
For example, a rational person might work much less than an irrational person who let their primitive desire to rise to the top of the tribe propel them into continuing to start new companies and increase their wealth after making their first billion, even though their second billion will make no actual difference to their standard of living. And thus that irrationally-driven billionaire might produce far more value for the world than the rationalist who quits after their first ten million to focus on consumption.