Talk:Beggar thy neighbour

beggar? really?

I've never heard this phrase before, but I have a feeling it ought to be "bugger thy neighbor," which makes more sense. Is this really worth an article? Merge with NIMBY? stephan.com 21:16, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Card game

I vaguely remember 'Begger-my-neighbour' mentioned as a card game in Dicken's novel Great Expectations. I suspect this is the origin of the term? --Surturz (talk) 04:49, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Found it! Beggar-My-Neighbour --Surturz (talk) 04:51, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Tragedy of the Commons

Can someone illustrate how these two concepts are the same (the article suggest that they are)? I understand that they are similar, but I'm not convinced that they share the relationship that this page is suggesting. --129.2.167.219 (talk) 08:43, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Beggar thy (?!) neigbour

Surely, surely, the usual expression is "Beggar my neighbour". See the book titles listed in the article, for example. Norvo (talk) 02:41, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Incorrect [?] use of the verb to "burden"

The current version

In the current version (the 05:32, 3 December 2018 version) of this article, the word "burden" occurs exactly once (feel free to [use Ctrl-F to] search for it), ... and there it is used as a verb.

What "burden" (as a verb) means

According to https://www.onelook.com/?w=burden&ls=a, when the word "burden" is a verb, it can mean:

• (from Macmillan): << "to create a problem or serious responsibility for someone" >>
• (from WordNet): << "weight down with a load" >> ... OR:
• (also from WordNet): << "impose a task upon, assign a responsibility to" >>

None of those meanings fit!

None of those meanings (shown above) seems to be compatible with the intended meaning in the sentence ... which says: [quote:]

This will see the protected firm "win" in the game and capture more of the market share as the subsidies burden the costs, which would otherwise deter the company.

. IMHO the word (or phrase) right before "the costs" should be (something more like) "offset" or "reduce" ... or even "shield the protected firm from [some or all of]".

In fact, if the word "offset" is used, it might even be appropriate to include a (parenthetical) phrase such as "some or all of".

Any clue? [as to what the 'intent' was] -- ? --

Does anyone (e.g., the editor who decided to use the word "burden" there) have any insight into what the reasoning might have been, behind using the word "burden" there? (Does anyone think that "burden" has some other "sense" ... in which it can mean "offset" or "reduce"?) (Some "sense" that apparently is unknown to me, and is also "news" [or, maybe, insufficiently notable?] to "onelook dot com", and to both Macmillan and WordNet) -- ? --

(Note: The "disambiguation" page for burden does include a link to [the article about] << "Overhead (business)" >>, but that is not even a verb...)

Any comments?

Even if (you do not have a crystal ball, and) you do not have the answer to the above, ... before I launch a bold edit to change the wording ... Does anyone have any comments? --Mike Schwartz (talk) 21:38, 8 April 2019 (UTC)