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Comment by legulere | Hacker News Reader

> Why is a powerful bureaucrat with no money more desirable to you than a rich entrepreneur that had to prove his value before attaining reward?

Because the bureaucrat had to prove their merit among the whole population while the rich entrepreneur just had to prove their merit among other kids that were privileged enough. Just think of Bill Gates that went to probably the only school that had a computer in the world.

In ancient China they even went so far to castrate bureaucrats to prevent cross-generational cronyism.

> Why limit Elon Musk

Because he is using cool goals like travelling to mars to motivate his workers to work themselves to exhaustion while ignoring safety measures? He acts exactly like capitalists of the industrial age. The difference is that his workers do not lack money for sustenance, but a purpose in life.

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let's say someone is born into extreme poverty, and through decades of hard work becomes wealthy enough to give his child a great education and a 1 million dll inheritance. is it not his right to use his money on his child?

then lets say this child turns this education and inheritance into 1 billion dollars worth of wealth. does this have no merit??

ive seen many people squander privileged upbringings, i think if you 10x what was given to you, you have some merit regardless of where you stared from.

I don't understand why people go to such great lengths to give current injustices the benefit of the doubt ad infinitum, even constructing ridiculously rare and hypothetical scenarios like that.

The real outrage here is the millions and millions of people squandering their talents in some shite job due to lack of opportunity, not the handful of billionaires that started from nothing and whose children might now be taxed somewhat.

I don't know man... I dont think its that rare for someone to climb out of poverty. Maybe I just see it this way because I did it myself (born in a 3rd world country, single mom, step father with bad addiction issues, barely graduated HS)

Now that Im a father myself, Im of course trying to give my child the best opportunities, but also trying to raise him to be grateful and disciplined.

So I'm not talking about the billionaires. Im talking about regular people who can now grant their children not private jets, but just a good private school.

What would be fair in this scenario? How can we make things equal/just in this case?

Also I dont think its rare or hypothetical at all, that rich kids never learn to work hard and squander their good fortune.

-- EDIT, i completely agree its absurd and completely wrong that 1% of people have 50% of the wealth, that should not be that way.

I also have a working class background, but in Sweden. The last thing I would like to do is to pull up the ladder that enabled me and so many others a better chance to a secure and comfortable life. The inheritance tax was actually recently abolished here, but not due to some popular uproar but because right-wing parties got into power.

> let's say someone is born into extreme poverty, and through decades of hard work becomes wealthy enough

That seems more luck than hard work to me. Just read the paper.

Even if that was possible. Do you want in a world where people with merit call the shots or a world in which people that cheated their way to wealth or simply inherited wealth call the shots?

Money can be transferred, gained through stealing and luck which all does not require merit. It is not a good proxy for merit.

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