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They didn't create that wealth, they were just in a position of power that enabled them to take a portion of the wealth created by many others. The wealth actua

by TFYS 3y ago

They didn't create that wealth, they were just in a position of power that enabled them to take a portion of the wealth created by many others. The wealth actually created by the contribution of these men doesn't have much to do with how much wealth they were rewarded with. If a king sees some unworked land and orders some servants to grow food on it, does the king create the food?

nvm0n2 3y ago
This is a very "ugh capitalism" take. Of course they created that wealth, what position of power did any of these guys have when they started? Comparing these guys to kings is absurd. Zuckerberg was literally a student in a dorm room. Musk was an immigrant from South Africa who taught himself programming. Andreessen was just an ordinary programmer who interned at IBM. Thiel is the maybe the closest to this, being a finance guy who went to Stanford Law and was able to casually raise a million bucks to start a VC fund from friends and family. But losing a million bucks is easy. Thiel didn't lose it, he made it back many times over. None of these guys had any power. They created the wealth mostly by writing useful hardware and software, but also by locating, recruiting and organizing other people who could also create useful software.
- TFYS 3y ago
  No power? What do you call the ability to control what thousands of people do with their time? Ownership is power. Capital is power. Most of that wealth wouldn't exist without all the people who worked for their companies to create it. The reason they get to keep such a large portion of it is not because they create it, but because they have the power to get rid of anyone who demands a fair share. Sure, they've done a lot of hard and important work to get the companies where they are now, but that work is not worth billions. It's normal work not much different from the work employees do for these companies.

by TFYS 3y ago

nvm0n2 3y ago

This is a very "ugh capitalism" take. Of course they created that wealth, what position of power did any of these guys have when they started? Comparing these guys to kings is absurd. Zuckerberg was literally a student in a dorm room. Musk was an immigrant from South Africa who taught himself programming. Andreessen was just an ordinary programmer who interned at IBM. Thiel is the maybe the closest to this, being a finance guy who went to Stanford Law and was able to casually raise a million bucks to start a VC fund from friends and family. But losing a million bucks is easy. Thiel didn't lose it, he made it back many times over. None of these guys had any power. They created the wealth mostly by writing useful hardware and software, but also by locating, recruiting and organizing other people who could also create useful software.

TFYS 3y ago
No power? What do you call the ability to control what thousands of people do with their time? Ownership is power. Capital is power. Most of that wealth wouldn't exist without all the people who worked for their companies to create it. The reason they get to keep such a large portion of it is not because they create it, but because they have the power to get rid of anyone who demands a fair share. Sure, they've done a lot of hard and important work to get the companies where they are now, but that work is not worth billions. It's normal work not much different from the work employees do for these companies.