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Notes -
Counterargument: we are much less risk-averse on average than historical peoples, and as a result the people who throw it all up and risk everything are less extraordinary. Back in the day, when the average risk aversion may have been a 2/10, someone who played at a 5/10 or a 7/10 was extraordinary, and there was money on the table to be gained. Now, most people might be at a 5/10, and as a result playing at a 7/10 isn't that noticeable, and even a 9/10 doesn't pick up that much reward.
Historically, the vast majority of people lived in one place and died there, took the jobs in their town, more or less the same ones their parents held, attended the church their parents attended, married a local girl for life and had kids like their parents did. People died within miles of where they were born. Think of Sam Gamgee, early in Fellowship, stopping on their journey upon the realization that one more step would be the furthest from home he'd ever been, two days into their walkabout! Taking risks was completely foreign to historical commoners.
Today it is very common for ordinary people to move cross country, thousands of miles, to places where they know no one. Few people go into their father's profession, few take over the family land or the family business. I'm an extreme outlier in my PMC peer group for living on the street I grew up in without a drug addiction or a failed marriage holding me back. People are constantly changing careers or homes or marriages. Taking up a new career, moving far from family support networks, borrowing multiples of your net worth to start a business or go to college, leaving your current partner to look for a new one, these are all huge risks that no responsible peasant would countenance, which are routine parts of a middle class American life story.
As a result, taking really big risks doesn't deliver as much value. The great explorers and traders and settlers and entrepreneurs of the past became heroes and gods. and kings, because there was money just laying about waiting for someone to pick it up. If you were willing to throw your life up and move, you were instantly extraordinary, one in a million. Today, you're one of a million, just another guy.
Well put. Hadn't thought about it this way but yeah, compared to historical norms modern society is highly risky. No wonder there's so much anxiety abounding.
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