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Comment by efaref | Hacker News Reader

The problem isn't that Bezos has 1,000x my net worth. He has 1,000,000x my (approximate) net worth. One millionth of my net worth is seven cents, so Bezos:me is me:$0.07.

The graph isn't logarithmic. It's shaped like this:

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What difference is there between 1000x and 1,000,000x ? Should there be a cap somewhere? I just completely fail to see how this is anything other than being jealous of someone elses's success. Please do explain.

really? you can only think of it as being about jealousy? that seems like a rhetorical trick you're attempting to use to shut down the debate by an appeal to (your perception of) the irrational emotional states of others.

spend a few minutes thinking about the politics of wealth and the premise of representative democracy and popular sovereignty.

It's not about being jealous of a particular person's success, it's more about observing the problems with a world where a tiny fraction of the population capture and control over half of the wealth.

If that were problem free, then fine. But it's not. Think of it as a symptom of an illness, and we should work to get the fever down.

But you're treating the symptom then. Shouldn't the illness be the target?

one step at a time. this is triage. first you get the fever down so the patient doesn't die. then you identify the pathogen and get your hygiene and medicine in a place where they can prevent future infections.

ok, so what exactly has Jeff done wrong or what he should do differently?

Norway has a $900 billion sovereign wealth fund. Is that a problem too? If you never heard about Bezos's wealth, would you suffer any troubles because of it? I think it's fine.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund is managed on behalf of all the people of Norway and there are political systems in place that grants those people some influence over how that money is used, and who benefits from it.

Bezos' wealth (and all the massive political power it represents) is almost totally unaccountable. This is the real problem of wealth inequality. It's not that some people have more material goods than others. It's that levels of wealth like that undermine the political systems that we have constructed to seek fair, just, and peaceful resolution of disputes. It is a road to tyranny.

I don't understand your point. Norway is 5 million people, so that's only 180k per capita.

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