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I think you'll find that even if you cap lifetime earnings and max inheritance at one billion dollars (and were able to rigorously enforce that), you'd still ha

I think you'll find that even if you cap lifetime earnings and max inheritance at one billion dollars (and were able to rigorously enforce that), you'd still have a healthy population willing to start large enterprises. If someone needs more motivation than earning billion dollars to start large industrial enterprises, I guarantee there's someone who'd be willing to try it for a billion or less.

HPsquared 3y ago
If someone earns their allotted billion under that system, wouldn't they just stop working once they reach the limit? Seems counterproductive.
- jonasdegendt 3y ago
  pg has an interesting essay exploring this question called Billionaires Build[0], the TLDR is that he finds that these people are intrinsically motivated to keep going for reasons other than monetary gain. Otherwise they would’ve quit long before a billion dollars anyway. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html
  - somenameforme 3y ago
    This is what he says: "One thing few people realize about billionaires is that all of them could have stopped sooner. They could have gotten acquired, or found someone else to run the company. Many founders do. The ones who become really rich are the ones who keep working. And what makes them keep working is not just money. What keeps them working is the same thing that keeps anyone else working when they could stop if they wanted to: that there's nothing else they'd rather do." That there's nothing you'd rather do in the present context, doesn't mean that'd also be true if you make it literally financially pointless. In any case, I think this is all a non-starter. If loop-holes were not readily available, people would simply move to different countries. The exact thing is happening in Norway to a somewhat comical degree. They recently chose to increase their wealth tax on billionaires. Dozens of billionaires thus chose to leave the country directly because of this, resulting an overall decline in tax revenue than if the country had retained the previous tax levels. [1] [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-abandoning-norway-at-record-rate-as-wealth-tax-rises-slightly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-aba...
    - ricardo81 3y ago
      I wonder how much that motivation is about 'well, if I sold out- these other people are purely about the monetary gain from it and me cashing out' vs the original mission. Or in other words, the altruism of the motivation.
- vsareto 3y ago
  Someone else could take that position and you'd have little trouble finding someone qualified and willing to do it.
randomdata 3y ago
If people don’t need the financial motivator to do great things, what do you need the cap for, then?

HPsquared 3y ago

If someone earns their allotted billion under that system, wouldn't they just stop working once they reach the limit? Seems counterproductive.

jonasdegendt 3y ago
pg has an interesting essay exploring this question called Billionaires Build[0], the TLDR is that he finds that these people are intrinsically motivated to keep going for reasons other than monetary gain. Otherwise they would’ve quit long before a billion dollars anyway. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html
- somenameforme 3y ago
  This is what he says: "One thing few people realize about billionaires is that all of them could have stopped sooner. They could have gotten acquired, or found someone else to run the company. Many founders do. The ones who become really rich are the ones who keep working. And what makes them keep working is not just money. What keeps them working is the same thing that keeps anyone else working when they could stop if they wanted to: that there's nothing else they'd rather do." That there's nothing you'd rather do in the present context, doesn't mean that'd also be true if you make it literally financially pointless. In any case, I think this is all a non-starter. If loop-holes were not readily available, people would simply move to different countries. The exact thing is happening in Norway to a somewhat comical degree. They recently chose to increase their wealth tax on billionaires. Dozens of billionaires thus chose to leave the country directly because of this, resulting an overall decline in tax revenue than if the country had retained the previous tax levels. [1] [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-abandoning-norway-at-record-rate-as-wealth-tax-rises-slightly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-aba...
  - ricardo81 3y ago
    I wonder how much that motivation is about 'well, if I sold out- these other people are purely about the monetary gain from it and me cashing out' vs the original mission. Or in other words, the altruism of the motivation.
vsareto 3y ago
Someone else could take that position and you'd have little trouble finding someone qualified and willing to do it.

randomdata 3y ago

If people don’t need the financial motivator to do great things, what do you need the cap for, then?