
Tech billionaires who donate millions are just “bribing society at large.” - howard941
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/22/18634612/anand-giridharadas-billionaires-philanthropy-zuckerberg-bezos-kara-swisher-decode-podcast-interview
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NeedMoreTea
Are we surprised?

We are effectively in another gilded age. The wealthy are acting much like
they did in the last one. Tech is an irrelevance here.

~~~
blub
Tech is an enabler and a power multiplier.

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AstroChimpHam
> but, he asked, why should they be treated as sagacious experts when they
> come from a completely different arena

Because they have a history of getting impressive shit done. Not complained
about, but actually done. And they have the will to get it done, and a bunch
of capital to put behind that will, even if they were taxed at whatever
ridiculously high rate Giridharadas wants them taxed at.

Giridharadas is welcome to disagree with successful people, but they've at
this point proven their opinions do tend to matter when it comes to shaping
the country whether we want to pay attention or not.

~~~
blub
I'm sure everyone would be all ears if Zuckerberg were asked for advice on how
to best violate people's privacy, or Bezos were asked how to abuse warehouse
workers, but there's no reason why the opinions of those two regarding e.g.
medicine would be worth more than those of actual specialists and experts.

Just because someone's successful it doesn't mean they're wise. Looking at
Zuckerberg fumble from scandal to scandal certainly doesn't give one that
impression. He's just another ruthless rich businessman.

~~~
AstroChimpHam
Snarky comments aside, Zuckerberg built a massive ads business from scratch,
not previously knowing anything about ads. He built a massive social network
from scratch, not knowing anything previously about social.

Bezos built the biggest e-commerce business in the world, never having worked
in e-commerce or retail before. And seems to be doing some impressive stuff at
Blue Origin, not knowing anything about space travel.

That's all not to mention Musk, who goes from new industry to new industry,
building successful businesses that fundamentally change those industries,
without previously knowing anything about those industries.

These are incredibly impressive accomplishments. They've proven their
bonafides for solving general problems in fields they weren't previously
familiar with, probably more than just about anyone else in the world.

~~~
Konnstann
The fact that they have built those businesses doesn't mean that they can draw
informed conclusions on whatever they want. I doubt that Bezos has his think-
tank of domain experts giving him background on every question he gets asked
during interviews. Sure, if Bezos shifted his attention to healthcare, a month
after the announcement I would give his opinions weight, because he's proven
adept at analyzing situations quickly, given motivation. What's the motivation
to learn about X problem in the world at any given time?

~~~
AstroChimpHam
This already happened on healthcare. He already has a healthcare initiative:
[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/dr-atul-gawande-to-lead-
buff...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/dr-atul-gawande-to-lead-buffett-
bezos-dimons-health-care-venture.html).

The thing to bear in mind with this is they're all constantly looking at a
bunch of other initiatives before jumping in, so if one of these people had a
comment to a reporter on just about anything it's probably not the first time
they're thinking about that subject.

~~~
blub
Great example. Your government prefers to spend money on bombs instead of
people, but Bezos will magically fix it with his billions.

Richest country in the world can't offer health care to so many of its
citizens.

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LarryDarrell
While inequality is not inherently a bad thing, we are starting to see the
corrosive effects letting a few have too much.

I've gotten to the point where it feels like we need a Net Worth Limit. Cap it
at $250 million let's say. The rich still get to enjoy a post-scarcity
lifestyle, and the rest of society doesn't hang in the balance of whether our
billionaire gods are benevolent or not. I doubt Jobs, Zuck and Gates would
have said "Forget it" if they knew they only had the opportunity to acquire a
quarter of a billion dollars. And if they did, they are probably not the sort
you want to have more money than that anyway.

~~~
maerF0x0
The concept that one has to contend with is the assumption is order to get $N
in compensation one has to provide >$N value back to society. Ex: I make $100k
as a engineer, I am actually building >$100k in software per year...

By restricting ultra productive people to a capped return we're effectively
disincentivizing these people from providing additional value once they've hit
their cap.

additionally you can forsee the fixed per capita cap will be gamed. $250M for
me, and for my spouse, and each next of kin, and each parent / uncle aunt etc.
Suddenly neopotism is all over the place.

~~~
chii
> disincentivizing these people from providing additional value ...

but the question i have is whether these people who are ultra rich really did
provide the value to society that their wealth suggests.

Did bezos or zuckerberg create value? Or did they just extracted the residual
value from their employees?

May be instead of a wealth cap, the cap needs to be applied at income (and
also make capital gains into income). Your wealth total is uncapped, but you
as a person, could not possibly have created more value than $X per year.
Where X is set can be debated, but i would expect it to be less than $10mil.

~~~
maerF0x0
> Or did they just extracted the residual value from their employees?

It's really hard to know the alternate history w/o Zuck, but the theory goes
that these employees would have been employed in less valuable ways w/o him.
Thus there is some marginal value add he brought to the table of which he
captures a portion of... Of course all of this is up for debate...

The rationale is that the entrepreneur/organization bringing the greatest
value to market is able to subsequently pay employees the most as well and
employees will naturally migrate to their greatest opportunity. Whether it's
starting their own business, staying at their current job or changing
employers/careers it is up to individuals to decide their own best path.

