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If you set a maximum wage like that, a lot of what is good in society would not happen because people would not be able to amass capital. For example, you woul

by jblow 11y ago

If you set a maximum wage like that, a lot of what is good in society would not happen because people would not be able to amass capital. For example, you would not have a SpaceX or a Tesla. You would not have Y Combinator as it exists today. You would not even have the video game that I am about to release next month. Yes, there are a lot of jerks who amass capital and do nothing with it or who do irresponsible things. But you also have people who use it to work very hard to make positive change in the world, and even if those people are in the minority, their impact is very large.

tahssa 11y ago
Capital accumulation can still happen without wage accumulation. Just don't pay yourself too much and keep the money inside the business. Naturally the money will get spent on building things like tesla.
- PeterisP 11y ago
  Tesla happened because individuals were able to take extremely large sums out of an unrelated business (Paypal), as did a huge part of early stage tech investments, funded at that point mainly by individuals who got multimillion exits in their previous businesses. If the money had been kept inside business, then you'd have the innovation rate that internal subsidiaries of IBM achieved, not the innovation rate of the Silicon Valley.
  - Apocryphon 11y ago
    Or perhaps with sufficient tax revenue in its coffers, the federal government would be able to properly fund NASA, or a Manhattan Project aimed at reducing oil dependency.
bjshepard 11y ago
You might also have space colonization or a world without cars?
DannoHung 11y ago
I don't think the GP's suggestion is smart or good either, but I don't see how it would fail to allow for capital accrual. It's not like you have to pay yourself all your earnings in wages as the owner of a business.
crdoconnor 11y ago
>If you set a maximum wage like that, a lot of what is good in society would not happen because people would not be able to amass capital. > >For example, you would not have a SpaceX or Tesla Yeah, just remember the bad old days when we had ~95% income tax and NASA actually had a serious budget. We definitely wouldn't want to return to the days when space travel actually pushed real boundaries and we didn't have a toy supercar company for the superwealthy.
ZenoArrow 11y ago
> "Yes, there are a lot of jerks who amass capital and do nothing with it or who do irresponsible things. But you also have people who use it to work very hard to make positive change in the world, and even if those people are in the minority, their impact is very large." I wish you well with your game launch, I hope it's a success. The issue I'm tackling isn't about erasing the rich, it's about setting limits on the differences between the rich and the poor. If you believe the rich should be richer, why shouldn't the poor be richer too? The issue with wealth accumulation is that it's a runaway process, wealth begets wealth, past a certain point it's no longer based on merit or contribution to the strength of the economy.

by jblow 11y ago

tahssa 11y ago

Capital accumulation can still happen without wage accumulation. Just don't pay yourself too much and keep the money inside the business. Naturally the money will get spent on building things like tesla.

PeterisP 11y ago
Tesla happened because individuals were able to take extremely large sums out of an unrelated business (Paypal), as did a huge part of early stage tech investments, funded at that point mainly by individuals who got multimillion exits in their previous businesses. If the money had been kept inside business, then you'd have the innovation rate that internal subsidiaries of IBM achieved, not the innovation rate of the Silicon Valley.
- Apocryphon 11y ago
  Or perhaps with sufficient tax revenue in its coffers, the federal government would be able to properly fund NASA, or a Manhattan Project aimed at reducing oil dependency.

bjshepard 11y ago

You might also have space colonization or a world without cars?

DannoHung 11y ago

I don't think the GP's suggestion is smart or good either, but I don't see how it would fail to allow for capital accrual. It's not like you have to pay yourself all your earnings in wages as the owner of a business.

crdoconnor 11y ago

>If you set a maximum wage like that, a lot of what is good in society would not happen because people would not be able to amass capital. > >For example, you would not have a SpaceX or Tesla Yeah, just remember the bad old days when we had ~95% income tax and NASA actually had a serious budget. We definitely wouldn't want to return to the days when space travel actually pushed real boundaries and we didn't have a toy supercar company for the superwealthy.

ZenoArrow 11y ago

> "Yes, there are a lot of jerks who amass capital and do nothing with it or who do irresponsible things. But you also have people who use it to work very hard to make positive change in the world, and even if those people are in the minority, their impact is very large." I wish you well with your game launch, I hope it's a success. The issue I'm tackling isn't about erasing the rich, it's about setting limits on the differences between the rich and the poor. If you believe the rich should be richer, why shouldn't the poor be richer too? The issue with wealth accumulation is that it's a runaway process, wealth begets wealth, past a certain point it's no longer based on merit or contribution to the strength of the economy.