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> They're worried about maintaining a democratic society, where everyone gets roughly an equal say in how things go. Highly concentrated wealth is a threat to t
by haberman 12y ago
> They're worried about maintaining a democratic society, where everyone gets roughly an equal say in how things go. Highly concentrated wealth is a threat to that.
I agree inasmuch as it applies to government and media, but when it comes to entrepreneurship I could not disagree more.
Making progress means taking some big risks. It is the nature of big risks that it's difficult to tell at the outset which ones will succeed and which will fail. But the people who are probably best qualified to predict this are the people who have succeeded before.
If people can't take the spoils of previous success to invest in their next idea, we don't get SpaceX, Tesla, or Y Combinator. Would Y Combinator be better run as a government program, run democratically and accountable to the general population? I don't think it would.
- vidarh 12y agoIt's easy enough to create systems that grants tax credits for investment vehicles as long as the returns are rolled over into new investments. Many countries have preferential tax treatments for long term investment vehicles already. But ignoring that: What is the evidence that this money is best spent by repeat entrepeneurs? Yes, there are some that do well. There's also a vast number of people that succeeds once and never again. And consider that e.g. Tesla and SpaceX both have benefited immensely from government programs. Maybe society would be better off with wealth taxes were the proceeds were pumped into more programs like these, or even co-investment with private investors with an actual track record track record.