Hacker News Reader

Comment by ModernMech | Hacker News Reader

I'm sorry, but why aren't there more people outraged and disgusted that so few people hold so much wealth? It seems like people not only think it's not a problem, but we gleefully track stats like this. I've seen people argue about who "deserves" to hold the richest person title. People pick sides like it's sports. Seriously, what am I missing here?

View on HN

People typically seek to maximize the return on their activities whatever their views on inequality. Thus Joseph Stiglitz, author of "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future" has no problem charging $50,000 - $100,000 for a speech thus making his income proportional to his talents. That's what most of us do. Famous politicians who've preached from the same hymn book, go even higher.

The interesting questions are at what level do you set the 'inequality coefficient' and how would you meet it using rules that don't stifle innovation and prevent people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and countless others from doing interesting things?

I have no problem with people making a lot of money. I have a problem with people making obscene amounts of money. Elon and Bill can do interesting things without personally being worth more than the GDP of some countries.

I believe because they project the image of the American dream to everyone else including the Walmart employees using food stamps.

It's a proxy for their extreme level of success. I can't be mad at that

Reply on news.ycombinator.com