It's not a 'pyramid scheme' like Amway, but yeah, it's pyramidal. The moral discomfort you notice is not because there is something wrong with startups per se,

It's not a 'pyramid scheme' like Amway, but yeah, it's pyramidal. The moral discomfort you notice is not because there is something wrong with startups per se, but with the winner-take-all dynamic that emerges in poorly-regulated markets. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K33AFOK?plink=B7Qs6pIL3Rfw7mh2&ref_=adblp13nvvxx_0_5_ti https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K33AFOK?plink=B7Qs6pIL3Rfw7mh2&... You are looking at the most basic feature of capitalism: that the rich tend to get richer. The usual mechanism is that rich people can afford to take on more risk, and therefore earn more reward. Your moral intuitions are correctly picking out injustice, but failing to notice that your entire life takes place among pyramids. Sure, startups are pyramidal, but so are corporations -- don't forget Zuckerberg telling the 'metamates' to put his company before themselves. Size doesn't matter; nor does industry; the same dynamic plays out in banking, agriculture, and all the rest. If you follow that intuition, you may, like me, discover with surprise that you're a socialist progressive. And once you've adjusted to that self-reperception, you may want to get active. The only way out of the Valley of the Pyramids is redistribution.