I am a devout capitalist with an accounting degree and an MBA. I believe the theory and data indicates that wealth is a mix of (in order): luck, family wealth, social ability, attractiveness, height, intelligence, natural abilities which align well with making money (conscientiousness, ability to delay gratification, affinity for work in scalable professions like IT, etc), culture, place of residence, likelihood of sociopathy, and many more.
Luck is part of it, but there are so many other factors here. When they converge, we often end up with people extremely good at making money. Under capitalism and in principle, this isn't a bad thing. It means they're generating outsized benefit for society. However problems quickly emerge: with economic power comes market inefficiencies. The wealthy can use their power to buy out competition, under-price them (below profit), out-market them, and leverage their efficiencies of scale and bargaining power to maintain a permanent moat. We are seeing all of this occur to an extreme degree in the modern software space. Frustratingly, anti-competitive laws have been on the books for a century, and are sufficiently broad to use. It's just that U.S. politicians lack the will.
Existentially, I believe that power corrupts. Billionaires are billionaires because they created a lot of value for society. Great. But once they're billionaires, they can control the destiny of countries, and this undermines democracy and greater social outcomes. I believe therefore that a balance must exist between deterrent effect which occurs with aggressive redistribution (and the effect is undeniable), and preventing the emergence of ultra powerful individuals.
Do billionaires really create enough value to warrant obscene wealth? Sure they deserve some wealth, but do they really deserve a billion dollars?
Are you forgetting the thousands of employees that are enabling them to become obscenely wealthy?
And I don’t buy the “deterrent effect” argument. IMO discouraging billionaires from acquiring more is a good thing and opens the door for other people to step up.
> I believe the theory and data indicates that wealth is a mix of (in order): luck, family wealth, social ability, attractiveness, height, intelligence, natural abilities which align well with making money (conscientiousness, ability to delay gratification, affinity for work in scalable professions like IT, etc), culture, place of residence, likelihood of sociopathy, and many more.
One could argue that most (if not all) of these factors still come down to being lucky
Luck is part of it, but there are so many other factors here. When they converge, we often end up with people extremely good at making money. Under capitalism and in principle, this isn't a bad thing. It means they're generating outsized benefit for society. However problems quickly emerge: with economic power comes market inefficiencies. The wealthy can use their power to buy out competition, under-price them (below profit), out-market them, and leverage their efficiencies of scale and bargaining power to maintain a permanent moat. We are seeing all of this occur to an extreme degree in the modern software space. Frustratingly, anti-competitive laws have been on the books for a century, and are sufficiently broad to use. It's just that U.S. politicians lack the will.
Existentially, I believe that power corrupts. Billionaires are billionaires because they created a lot of value for society. Great. But once they're billionaires, they can control the destiny of countries, and this undermines democracy and greater social outcomes. I believe therefore that a balance must exist between deterrent effect which occurs with aggressive redistribution (and the effect is undeniable), and preventing the emergence of ultra powerful individuals.