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He's a 21st century Al Capone. Through perverse incentives set by the government, he immorally amasses a whole bunch of money at great expense to society, then
by reitzensteinm 14y ago
He's a 21st century Al Capone. Through perverse incentives set by the government, he immorally amasses a whole bunch of money at great expense to society, then attempts to allocate some of it to win the favor of the general public.
With Capone it was soup kitchens and coal, with Myhrvold it's polio research and mosquito killers.
Thankfully Myhrvold uses the courts instead of thugs; though in one sense that's even worse, because at least the government was actively trying to thwart Capone. Who knows how long this patent mess will go on, and how much economic damage will result.
- rwmj 14y agoThrough perverse incentives set by the government, he immorally amasses a whole bunch of money at great expense to society, then attempts to allocate some of it to win the favor of the general public. I guess he learned that trick from Bill Gates.
- xal 14y agoHeh, after that first sentence I definitely didn't expect that this would turn out to be a rather thought provoking and insightful comment. Thank you fro the contribution!