
Behind Rising Inequality: More Unequal Companies - a5seo
http://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-rising-inequality-more-unequal-companies-1446665769
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natmaster
The whole premises of this article is incredibly disturbing. That people are
actually mad that a company is able to produce so much new value that it
dramatically increases the living standards of even its lowest paid employees.

Are people so delirious with envy that they want everyone to go back to the
dark ages?

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edc117
I read it a bit differently: these companies are doing so well, they're
capturing a huge amount of their respective markets, to the point where they
can easily afford to raise the salary on even their lowest paid employees.
Likewise on the other end of the spectrum, companies on razor-thin margins are
stuck pushing people towards minimum wage salaries.

You could pull a couple of conclusions from this article:

1\. The patent system is a mess, and is helping drive huge profits for a small
number of very large companies, as well as hindering others from competing or
entering that market. They note the biggest examples are in tech and
healthcare, which is not surprising.

2\. The 'best' or 'smartest' workers congregating in a few very large
companies that can afford to pay them very well is no surprise. Add in #1 and
employees have less reason to leave and create competing services or
businesses.

3\. The ability of technology to be so easily replicated, plus #1 and #2,
means we see few, if any, challengers to certain established markets.

All this is great...if you work at one of these companies.

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Eridrus
I don't think it's just the patent system, the network effects many startups
are chasing are just "natural" monopolies.

Zero-to-One is essentially Thiel setting down the fact that everyone should be
on the hunt for rent seeking monopolies, since these are the only things that
make enough money to be worthwhile from a VC standpoint.

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donkeyd
Anybody have a link where I can read the full article?

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hrnnnnnn
In general with these kind of paywalls, you can paste the url into google and
click it from the search results to bypass the paywall.

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amorphid
You can search Google for the article title, too.

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harkyns_ruins
I don't think it's worth worrying about inequality at this stage, we've gone
past the tipping point. The people that can make a change have no desire to do
so, and they hold the reins tightly now. The rest are either frustrated and
powerless, or dizzy on propaganda.

So I think we'll see more environmental destruction and species dying, more
debt-slavery, and yet more war coming out of the US because the petrodollar is
worth destroying our planet over, and a banking/finance system that is
corrupted and uncontrollable. Unless there's some light at the end of the
tunnel that I'm unaware of (aside from a train packed with a few people that
think they earned their billions because of such hard work).

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Frondo
Of course none of this is true. But, of course, what is true is that those who
sit at home and do nothing ensure that nothing changes.

Well done, you.

