There is no limit to how many different posts and comments one can do this to. In this sense there is an unlimited supply of karma to be handed out.
So infinite posts * 1 sock puppet = infinite karma.
One cannot get high karma by producing a small amount of content that a small number of users likes a lot.
Aside from the fact that both posts and comments can be upvoted, there’s double upvoting (though I’m not sure how that is calculateed from one’s karma) so:
One can get high karma from a small amount of content that a small number of sufficiently high karma users double up vote. (Though sequence length may be rewarded more than brevity, and while there may be a loose correlation (longer sequence requires more time) we might suppose there is a correlation going the other way—more time is required to make what would otherwise be longer posts shorter, and the same may be said of sequences.)
though I’m not sure how that is calculateed from one’s karma
I believe it’s proportional to the log of your user karma. But I’m not sure.
One can get high karma from a small amount of content that a small number of sufficiently high karma users that double up vote it.
There is still an incentive gradient towards “least publishable units”.
Suppose you have a piece of work worth 18 karma to high-karma user U. However, U’s strong upvote is only worth 8 karma.
If you just post one piece of work, you get 8 karma. If you split your work into three pieces, each of which U values at 6 karma, you’re better off. U might strong-upvote all of them (they’d rather allocate a little too much karma than way too little), and you get 24 karma.
To the extend the metaphor in the original question: maybe if the world economy ran on the equivalent of strong upvotes there would still be cars around, yet no one could buy airplanes.
So infinite posts * 1 sock puppet = infinite karma.
Aside from the fact that both posts and comments can be upvoted, there’s double upvoting (though I’m not sure how that is calculateed from one’s karma) so:
One can get high karma from a small amount of content that a small number of sufficiently high karma users double up vote. (Though sequence length may be rewarded more than brevity, and while there may be a loose correlation (longer sequence requires more time) we might suppose there is a correlation going the other way—more time is required to make what would otherwise be longer posts shorter, and the same may be said of sequences.)
I believe it’s proportional to the log of your user karma. But I’m not sure.
There is still an incentive gradient towards “least publishable units”.
Suppose you have a piece of work worth 18 karma to high-karma user U. However, U’s strong upvote is only worth 8 karma.
If you just post one piece of work, you get 8 karma. If you split your work into three pieces, each of which U values at 6 karma, you’re better off. U might strong-upvote all of them (they’d rather allocate a little too much karma than way too little), and you get 24 karma.
To the extend the metaphor in the original question: maybe if the world economy ran on the equivalent of strong upvotes there would still be cars around, yet no one could buy airplanes.