Comment by godelski | Hacker News Reader

Comment by godelski | Hacker News Reader

Okay, but so what? Do we do something about it? Or is this just complaining.

I feel like this is analogous to something many people here are used to. We all know people that have been programing since they were a child. Those people had money for a computer (I'm under 30 and this was still a thing). Most of those people had a parent or two that were more highly educated and even more likely that one did STEM (and probably knew some programming or someone that did).

Is that privilege? Yes.

Do I wish I had those opportunities as a kid? Kinda

Am I going to do anything about it? No. Why would I?

If this article is only about the myth of the self made millionaire/billionaire then okay. But that doesn't come across. We all already knew that these people came from high places of privilege. But complaining about how they had opportunities that we don't is useless. The problem is lack of opportunities and resources for the less privileged. You don't even need to take away the opportunities from those already privileged. This isn't a zero sum game. If you want to present solutions I am happy to read more articles and do my part. But this just came off as complaining.

Maybe determine how much money the families need to have in order to spawn entrepreneurs? I suspect that number isn’t $100M, but more like $10M. Then, change the tax policy to create 10 families with $10M instead of 1 family with $100M.

How would you come up with that number?

As noted by others in this thread, starting with entrepreneurship is a combination of knowledge, skills and somewhat being financially independent enough to commit significant amounts of time to creating something from scratch and - most significantly - having a network to achieve the latter.

Creating opportunity is a systemic, complex and long term challenge that you can't simply put a $ amount to. Your surroundings and upbringing shape you massively and there is no money which can make up for that and time. When you're 25 coming from a dirt poor community and are the first to study in your family there is such a slim chance you have seized dozens of opportunities correctly so that they stack up to put you in a spot where you are not only able to (aka resources present) but capable of achieving successes comparable to privileged peers. Network and skills are essential. Highly recommend reading "Cities and Ambition" (http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html) for more context.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the old Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." is true when it comes to creating opportunity. It's not a "point in time", but a continuous problem.

Maybe you could look at the family financial situation of entrepreneurs at the time they founded a company? With that information, along with the number of families in each wealth bracket, and company revenue after N years, you can calculate what the optimal population of wealth distribution is for maximum entrepreneurialism. Not that I expect any country to pass such laws to shape their elite class distribution in this manner, but it’s a good drinking conversation.

It's not limited to the financial situation. You also need a social network, and growing that network takes time.

Why?

System optimization. We are idealistic geeks, aren’t we.

You're right but the first step is awareness and acknowledgement.

The answer is increasing taxes progressively to ensure when some have far more than they need that others at least get a shot at life. Good schools and good social safety nets. We are all part of a society and that society enables such wealth inequality that some become fabulously rich and others fall into despair. The challenge is making sure that we give everyone a fair shot no matter their origin. There is obviously a lot of resistance to this idea, people refer to it as social justice but all it really is as with most things at the core, is class warfare.

This is a problem - too many people still refuse to acknowledge the reality of the depth of priviledges of wealth.

Do you get it? Yes. Do I get it? I've been homeless. Does hacker news get it? Eh... Look around at some of the comments, and notice that most of the folks actively engaged are on our level. And this isnt exactly a hot topic.

Having to scroll past this headline while they search for that next investment is healthy for those neo-feudalist deniers among us.

That's what this is about.

So, how are you gonna vote to fix this? That's not exactly a high risk, antisocial behavior. Some people even still consider such your moral duty.

Heck, join or donate to the DSA. Or your local Anarchist/Communist group that puts on a community meal. Teach your skills. Do something, anything other than just complain about how powerless you feel, and how nothing is getting done.

I for one welcome the future days when hacker news keeps up with the IWW - you programmers are about to end up like auto factory workers, and you need to know how to react.

Fuck it - wanna start a co-op VPN?

What do mean it's not hot topic and who told you that anarchist/communist groups are considered wise choice or something positive? Wanna know what is happening with communist groups in Eastern Europe where most of the communist people that have businesses there are underpaying their employees? Wanna know about the drugs in anarchist groups and how they depend on hierarchy? Wanna know about their rotten utopia? I have a Communist friend, the guy is giving money to the communist group every month and they are forcing him to bring people in and sell their manifesto (what they call "newspaper")

There are 3 questions 1. What is the nature of the social economic order. 2. Is the the order we want. 3. How might we change this order.

I think this articles primary objective is to inform question 1.

If your inherent response to 3. Is "no. Why would I" Then it makes sense why you would see this as complaining. On the other hand if you were possessed by the smallest fraction of western social political impetus then I doubt your retort would be so terse.

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