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One of the points Piketty makes in his book is that the rich generally aren't the heroic creative geniuses of Ayn Rand's imagination. Most wealth is inherited.
by adwhit 10y ago
One of the points Piketty makes in his book is that the rich generally aren't the heroic creative geniuses of Ayn Rand's imagination.
Most wealth is inherited. Wealth grows faster than the economy at large. The rich get richer. They spend their money lobbying for lower tax rates, and they get them. They lobby for privatization, and they get them. They lobby for monopolies and patents and bailouts, and they get them.
Interesting to note that half the population are no richer than they were almost 50 years ago.
- Avshalom 10y ago'course Ayn Rand's imagination is mostly horribly vindictive genocidal assholes...
- ryandrake 10y agoGoing from $0 to $1M? Nearly impossible. Going from $1M to $2M? Nearly inevitable.
- blisterpeanuts 10y agoGates, Jobs, Ellison, Zuck et al didn't inherit their wealth.
- anigbrowl 10y agoOne of the points Piketty makes in his book is that the rich generally aren't the heroic creative geniuses of Ayn Rand's imagination. 1. There are always going to be outliers, but most people are going to be closer to the middle of a normal distribution. 2. The examples you mention were all excellent entrepreneurs, but they were also a bit lucky with timing and social position; Jobs' adoptive parents were blue-collar workers but none of these future industrialists grew up in poverty. If we could reduce the latter a bit we might have even more of the former.
- Namrog84 10y agoThey also didn't start at the absolute bottom. Most of them had an above average hand to start with.