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This is why societies should strive for more “inequality” (as in, more families with large fortunes). The rich have a safety net that allows them to take risks
by Tycho 4y ago
This is why societies should strive for more “inequality” (as in, more families with large fortunes). The rich have a safety net that allows them to take risks that ultimately benefit all of society. Let’s say with the best execution, a startup still only has 10% chance of success - so then the only thing to do is have more and more people “roll the dice.” And no, a strong welfare state is not a substitute - the danger is not starvation, but loss of your life savings or comfortable lifestyle provided by a decent career. Welfare does nothing to mitigate that risk (except maybe for the people with no wealth or good employment prospects, but they are probably not the primary talent pool for startup founders).
- Sammi 4y agoYou really don't think there is already more than enough inequality? I get the case for some capital accumulation. Capital does make for an amazing economic engine that we all benefit from. Capitalist countries are richer than non capitalist countries. Easy to understand. But there is a point where more capital accumulation and inequality just makes the rest of us become serfs to oligarchs.
- Tycho 4y agoI think we need more Elon Musks, yes. Although, obviously, we don’t want more people who got rich by being politicians.
- FpUser 4y agoI have a suspicion that if Elon Musk types were given free reign we would end up with people working overtime for pennies.
- bandyaboot 4y agoFunny, I’d cite Elon Musk level capital accumulation and his decisions on how to allocate his capital over the last year as a perfect case study of the theory that, while capital accumulation can be a good thing, we also don’t want all our eggs in too few baskets.
- Tycho 4y agoActually it’s quite good - because he spent $40bln we got to see detailed evidence of government agencies working hand-on-glove with corporations to censor information and shape political outcomes (a few years ago it was trendy to refer to this as arrangement as “fascism”).
- bandyaboot 4y agoWe got to see his curated version of that. Someone who has become a firmly entrenched partisan cultural warrior.
- kubb 4y agoYou may be overestimating to what extent successful startups benefit everyone. And underestimating the dangers of failure for non-rich.