Some people think billionaires should be more heavily taxed, which they call a redistribution of wealth. I think that is a bizarre take because the original dis

Some people think billionaires should be more heavily taxed, which they call a redistribution of wealth. I think that is a bizarre take because the original distribution is conceptually absurd to begin with. Think about it. You create a thing, a useful thing. We value that at 100K and given your outsized role in bringing it into existence, you have an equity of 40%. In absolute terms, you'd have 40K at this point, which seems perfectly fine. Next, you (help to) scale this company up to a valuation of $100B. Your stake is now $40B. The percentage is the problem here. It's a wild concept to be a procentual owner of a thing of an indefinite size which can only typically be scaled up by the labor of thousands of others. It's a concept we made up. It does not exist in material reality. You did not produce the value from $40K to $40B, yet you're rewarded it anyway. You did produce some value, quite a lot even, which would justify a (very) high salary. Equity sure is a great way to get rich quickly and I know a lot of you are in the game, but it's a strange concept regardless.