I think people are still coming to grips with the incredible scalability of software. You might hate a business tycoon, but somebody worked their ass off to bui

I think people are still coming to grips with the incredible scalability of software. You might hate a business tycoon, but somebody worked their ass off to build that business. But today, you write a nifty little game about a bird worth a few nickles or something, and thanks to stupid-scalar you're an overnight billionaire. People don't know how to feel about that. I don't know how to feel about that. The closest analogue from before would have been inventing something clever, making a proof of concept, filing a patent, and chaching you never have to work again and have your own Senator. And of course that never happened. Linus obviously puts in a hell of a lot more work than that, but the simplified version is a thought experiment. Anyway, nobody begrudges someone who had a good idea and did the world good, having it made and living a good life. But I think there's two elements that turn things sour- one is the influence of money in politics, and the other is as you mentioned that some people have nothing. If nobody was starving and we got money out of politics, it would be easier to applaud overnight billionaires with no reservations. As for the "Hard Problems", it's businesses or government that tend to tackle those. The billionaire investor-philanthropist funding a derring-do venture out of his own pockets ala Musk is not the norm.