Those personal fortunes are also products of laws. Jeff Bezos is wealthy because he owns a huge number of shares in Amazon. He is able to do this because this i

Those personal fortunes are also products of laws. Jeff Bezos is wealthy because he owns a huge number of shares in Amazon. He is able to do this because this is a legally recognized form of corporate governance. Imagine a bunch of Amazon workers suddenly decide to start ignoring directives from on high and pursuing goals other than enriching the shareholders. They're fired, naturally. They keep showing up to Amazon and using its resources. Some people from payroll are in on it. Why can't this happen? At some point the government gets involved and people start getting arrested. The idea that private wealth is somehow separate from public governance is common enough in our society, and it's easy to hold on to if your idea of government is always an interference with the status quo, but if you consider that the status quo is created by a system of government actions in the first place, it's clear that this idea doesn't actually make sense.