Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who would allocate resources better?
The government, controlled by the people.
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Billionaires Build
311–320 of 957 posts
Re: Billionaires Build
#312About to write some possibly controversial stuff...
My early life, I grew up and had middle to upper middle class all around me. In my late teens and early twenties, there were times I had to scrounge my cushions and rummage through my car to find enough change to eat a meal.
We live in a society where everyone has access to a computer—personal or local library. We have all the information we need to bring (the majority, but not all) ourselves up from poverty to lower middle class or even middle class.
It’s my belief that it boils down to a few things: - self learning - dedication
Self Learning: if you must, pirate the crap out of all knowledge you need to get your family in a stable place. You need a textbook, you can find an older version; need a research report, find it online; you need.... just go find it and get it. If you don’t know how to find it, learn how to find it. If you don’t know where to start, ask someone. Just do...
Dedication: it’s so much easier to just come home do what you need to do with the family and then sit down and watch tv or do something that’s not going to progress you. It’s not fun and your mind will fight you every step of the way, but what’s more important to you? The show that’s on in an hour or the stability of your mind and family? Don’t look for those immediate returns, yet rather look for those returns that pay off in a year or two or 5. As i said, it sucks, but what’s more important?
One thing I’ve noticed over and over again is the difference between being raised in middle class or upper middle class vs poverty is the view of the work place—I’m not saying this is true for everyone, but just what I’ve observed over time. - Middle class and up: not as scared to talk back, speak your mind, or challenge their opinion to your bosses or colleagues. - Poverty: fearful of doing the aforementioned
I, for some reason see this as one of the largest issues with advancement as it propagates to not just the work life, but also the personal life too and thus creates a fear of challenge—it’s better to go with the status quo than to break out.
How can this change? Learn learn learn and then go find a place where you can apply your new skills and then just keep learning instead of doing the easy thing...
Thoughts?
Re: Billionaires Build
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what should happen to your assets when the total of their market capitalization crosses the $1B line?
In good idle games they shift the goal once you hit more boring levels. Stealing partly from someone else I can't find a reference for: Ownership capped at 1 billion, you get a sticker saying "I won capitalism" and all further growth and income goes to the government for social programs. You get a new ticker that estimates lives saved and people homes/fed/educated - that becomes your new boasting figure. Not entirely…
> Ownership capped at 1 billion, you get a sticker saying "I won capitalism" and all further growth and income goes to the government for social programs. You get a new ticker that estimates lives saved and people homes/fed/educated - that becomes your new boasting figure.
But that would be a lie since most of that money/value was created by other people, most likely their employees.
Re: Billionaires Build
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who would allocate resources better?
The Chinese government is a horrible, authoritarian nightmare, but still somehow does better at managing the country's resources than the American ruling class. The pandemic, now over in China, while our nurses tape garbage bags to themselves as thousands die daily, has proven that definitively.
The pandemic happened to hit while we had a particularly idiotic populist demagogue in the White House, but even if we'd had someone more competent I still agree that China would have done better. Assuming you believe their numbers, China seems to be doing better than most of the world.
I chalk up China's governmental competence to the number of scientists and engineers involved in their government. It may be authoritarian and a bit of a nightmare, but unlike the majority of other governments in the world you have a few decision makers in there who have some clue how the world actually works. Most other government are run by lawyers, career bureaucrats, delusional ideologues, or leaders who inherited their position either officially via some line of succession or de-facto via institutional nepotism.
There are some of all those categories in China's government, but there are also apparently enough people who actually know how to do things in the real world.
Re: Billionaires Build
#315‘Make something people want’ is hard for me to understand - is this a fair expansion? Make something people want that can evolve into a commodity, ensure only the inventor can profit (e.g. with IP protections), and architect your business such that returns scale independently of operation costs.
Inverse the phrase to be 'Make something people do not want'. I doubt people have built successful companies, and become 'billionaires' by building something people do not want.
Nor by forming a B corporation... as far as I know.
Re: Billionaires Build
#316This essay uses a weak straw-man: the only way to become a billionaire is by exploiting people I think the "principle of charity" or "steel-man" criticism of billionaires isn't that every single billionaire is directly exploiting people. It would be closer to something like this: The problem is that our society has feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty, and feedback loops that let the wealthy amass more…
Almost. The straw-man is that future billionaires start out to exploit people.
The exploitation is a side effect.
Re: Billionaires Build
#317This essay uses a weak straw-man: the only way to become a billionaire is by exploiting people I think the "principle of charity" or "steel-man" criticism of billionaires isn't that every single billionaire is directly exploiting people. It would be closer to something like this: The problem is that our society has feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty, and feedback loops that let the wealthy amass more…
That’s the equivalent of a solider claiming they were just following orders.
The Doordash people don’t want to steal tips, but the law doesn’t punish them for doing so, and the people getting exploited are drinking lead water anyway.
Re: Billionaires Build
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
In good idle games they shift the goal once you hit more boring levels. Stealing partly from someone else I can't find a reference for: Ownership capped at 1 billion, you get a sticker saying "I won capitalism" and all further growth and income goes to the government for social programs. You get a new ticker that estimates lives saved and people homes/fed/educated - that becomes your new boasting figure. Not entirely…
Do you think billionaires would just stop and let the system collect their money? My first thought is they would just donate all ownership over the cap to family members. They could probably continue this forever before every family member gains $1B
Seems perfectly fine to me. Gifts are taxed in the US. If it causes resulting problems, deal with it then. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good.
Re: Billionaires Build
#319love to see pg get more out of touch with every single passing day.
pg hasn't changed a bit, as far as I can tell. Surrounding conditions (e.g. the political and media climate) have changed a lot, plus there are the expectations people have from anyone they perceive as rich and famous. He ignores that kind of expectation, which pisses a lot of people off—but this is nothing new. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25233038
That's called being out of touch.
Re: Billionaires Build
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neither category should exist. The fact billionaires exist is an indictment against our system and how we allocate resources.
So what should happen to your assets when the total of their market capitalization crosses the $1B line?
I don’t know, many some more of the value of those assets could go to the workers who created the value.