The Stone Soup Theory of Billionaires

> There’s not one line in the Amazon code-base written by Jeff Bezos. There’s not one iota of iron-phosphate in Tesla batteries mined by Elon. Hell, he didn’t even dream up the idea for that company. Another guy did, but Elon pushed him aside and got the villagers to focus on him instead. Similarly, Trump didn’t lay one brick in the Trump Tower. Thousands of workers did, like they’ve done throughout history.

It’s been a long time since I last read such a ridiculous article.

I wonder how different the world would be if we behaved ourselves and welcomed fair competition?

Maybe it would be close to paradise.

The truth is somewhere in between. The "Great Man" theory of history has been in declension for decades and it is mostly conservatives who are propping it up and keeping it alive. (Pick up any major bio of Churchill to see an example.) I think it deserves to thrive alongside other theories of history.

But thumbs up for the Stone Soup trope -- it is right up there with The Emperor's New Clothes and The Dog in the Manger in terms of its general applicability to life.