This man worked hard, took risks and got rewards from it; I don't think this is something that anyone wants to punish. He certainly isn't a bad guy. Neither is

This man worked hard, took risks and got rewards from it; I don't think this is something that anyone wants to punish. He certainly isn't a bad guy. Neither is any other rich person; they are taking maximum advantage of a system that produces outcomes that can be disproportionate to the hard work and risk that people put in. Mark Zuckerberg is ~$50 billion (I'm sure theres an exact number somewhere). This means he is likely to be around 1000x richer than the person writing this article. Did he take larger risks or work harder or was he 1000x more effective at his job? Wall street trading is a high value job and many PHDs are hired to work in the field. It produces almost nothing of value. We have a system that provides incentives for the brightest people to do something that provides no value and hides all their innovations (trade secrets!). Then there's the question of economic stratification's impact on the market itself; it's largely agreed on that reducing the difference is better (and that everyone equal is equally silly). Billionaires just don't spend the majority of their money or bother putting it back into the economy because they don't have to. I also want 'free' college. Investing in education tends to pay off for everybody who can hack it. These people contribute more to society (even as artists) and are much more likely to be out of poverty, make more money, advance society and generally be good citizens. Having the government pay 100% gives them more leverage over what the colleges spend money on and may actually reduce the costs (but IANAE). If a productive person has more time in college to explore their interests, might they be more productive overall? Most unskilled service jobs add very little to society; instead of working a job, he could have been building his company or saving that money to put towards his company. Bernie's rallying cry is politics; it vilifies people instead of the system that they naturally take advantage. This works well as a narrative, but the people aren't villains. I'd much rather have as many productive people as possible take advantage of systems that create the most progress in society overall.