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Comment by silverquiet | Hacker News Reader

Here's my simplified way of thinking about equality at times - let's say you've worked hard all your life and have saved $2.5 million dollars - quite a nice sum. I just looked and Bill Gates stands at $128 billion. So 51,200 times more money. Do you think Bill Gates worked 51,200 times harder? Is he 51,200 times smarter? Better? Some level of inequality just seems inherently unjustifiable. I have no specific quarrel with Gates; insert any other filthy rich person and imagine it.

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“Some level of inequality just seems inherently unjustifiable.“

Define justifiable. I would agree with “unfair.” Life is not fair. Is life “justifiable” to you? In nature, there are predators and prey, is that “justifiable”?

I like to simplify my thinking too, but your view seems inherently suppose almost superhuman discernment, that you (or other humans individually or collectively) can judge what is justified on a case by case basis without any concrete principals or criteria, and without bias! Doesn’t seem simple to me at all! How to distinguish the bill gateses from the other guys is a problem as old as civilization. There is more law and tax code written on this than you can ever hope to capture in your thinking. Ignoring policy and centuries of human knowledge isn’t “simple” as much as it is ignorance.

Bill Gates has probably had 51200 times more impact on the world than me or other more average people. Do you disagree about that? Maybe I could have had that level of impact given the same circumstances, but probably I wouldn't, most people with his circumstances didn't. And most likely I would have stopped working the moment I had enough money, I never would have gone on to push for more and more, expand for ever greater impact, I'd be happy as a millionaire like most other people would and stop growing.

People who continue working to expand their impact even when they don't need to are rare.

I think Dennis Ritchie and Linus Torvalds have had a roughly similar impact upon the world with the benefit that I also consider it a positive impact.

Expanding your area of impact, when it is no longer your technical domain, is to put it mildly, dangerous and often counterproductive.

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