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Paul Graham is still asking to be eaten
- mcherm 11y agoI don't agree with this essay. But I ALSO don't fully agree with Paul Graham's essay[1] either, and I think this one has something useful to offer. Paul's essay said (and obviously I'm compressing a LOT): "People complain about income inequality. But some income is not part of a zero-sum game, and we'd lose some benefits (like startups) if we banned income inequality. Let's attack poverty instead of attacking income inequality." But, while I think poverty is a problem (and the bigger problem), I ALSO think that extreme income inequality (or, more accurately, extreme wealth inequality) is a problem. Albeit a DIFFERENT problem, but also a problem. This essay helps a little in expressing the reasons. Roughly, I would say "Having 10x or 100x wealth inequality isn't harmful. But having 1,000,000x wealth inequality creates some serious problems. And I simply don't believe any arguments that this level of inequality is 'fair' or 'earned'." [1] - http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html