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> This responsibility is usually assumed to be higher if you have reaped oversized rewards from society, such a becoming wealthy Thinking about Jeff Bezos. I f

> This responsibility is usually assumed to be higher if you have reaped oversized rewards from society, such a becoming wealthy Thinking about Jeff Bezos. I feel that society as a whole has had a lot more to gain from his endeavors than he might be able to reap back from society in his lifetime. Unless he becomes an immortal meld between man and machine and rules the Empire of Mankind for millennia to come.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
How are you calculating these gains and losses? What value did you ascribe to a civilized non violent society, with sufficiently low theft rates, that allows a business to deliver door to door items worth hundreds and thousands of dollars? Or a society that educated its populace to be sufficiently literate and develop a network of devices that can communicate so that Bezos’ website can operate? The point is these types of comparisons are fruitless. There are numerous dependencies and benefits, both ways. The only thing that matters is what conditions lead to a better functioning society.
lovich 4y ago
> I feel That’s fine. I don’t. One of the core claims of capitalism being an improvement over centrally planned economies is that no entity is capable of making all the most efficient decisions without being an actor in the transaction. The decentralized nature of the free market is supposed to create efficiencies as the actors closer to the transaction and with better information, make more efficient transactions. Mega rich billionaires are massive concentrations of wealth and as long as they control how it is deployed they are becoming closer and closer to the heads of centrally planned economies. The fact that they are private individuals doesn’t change that fact. In my most charitable view, billionaires are a sign of a market failure, as in a competitive market they never would have had the margins to accumulate that much extra capital
- analog31 4y ago
  Indeed, a reasonable concept of "limited government" has to extend to limiting individuals whose power approaches the power of a government.
MisterBastahrd 4y ago
You mean the guy who doesn't pay taxes but tears up our highways with billions of deliveries each year?

lotsofpulp 4y ago

How are you calculating these gains and losses? What value did you ascribe to a civilized non violent society, with sufficiently low theft rates, that allows a business to deliver door to door items worth hundreds and thousands of dollars? Or a society that educated its populace to be sufficiently literate and develop a network of devices that can communicate so that Bezos’ website can operate? The point is these types of comparisons are fruitless. There are numerous dependencies and benefits, both ways. The only thing that matters is what conditions lead to a better functioning society.

lovich 4y ago

> I feel That’s fine. I don’t. One of the core claims of capitalism being an improvement over centrally planned economies is that no entity is capable of making all the most efficient decisions without being an actor in the transaction. The decentralized nature of the free market is supposed to create efficiencies as the actors closer to the transaction and with better information, make more efficient transactions. Mega rich billionaires are massive concentrations of wealth and as long as they control how it is deployed they are becoming closer and closer to the heads of centrally planned economies. The fact that they are private individuals doesn’t change that fact. In my most charitable view, billionaires are a sign of a market failure, as in a competitive market they never would have had the margins to accumulate that much extra capital

analog31 4y ago
Indeed, a reasonable concept of "limited government" has to extend to limiting individuals whose power approaches the power of a government.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago

You mean the guy who doesn't pay taxes but tears up our highways with billions of deliveries each year?