[hoaw]

Yes, allocation of resources is pretty much _the_ issue right know in terms of the future. There is certainly a lot of opportunity to capture wealth for yourself, to mistreat the environment and in other ways "win". But in the end it is those who can afford to leave things on the table that are going to really win. The companies that can deliver more value to their employees, the cities can provide more affordable housing and the countries that are doing better in terms of e.g. emissions. It is by distributing rather than capturing wealth that people and societies are going to be able to do more than the ordinary. This is when you will afford to innovate and do so from a position of strength.

[drak0n1c]

You can make the argument against private ownership of certain types of land for the purposes of public benefit, but I don't see the environmental point in this case. Privately owned areas, particularly beaches, usually fare better environmentally than high-traffic public access beaches.

In the Philippines and Hawaii, beaches that are restricted due to indigenous sovereignty or private ownership don't have the litter and degraded reefs of their public beaches. Unfortunately there has been a tragedy of the commons with public access.

[hoaw]

I'm not arguing specifically about his actions, but about his actions in relation to the future. Like in any societal shift there are opportunities for the people who come out on top to leverage their position for themselves. Whether that is blocking public beaches or cheating the environment (like e.g. Volkswagen did).

But in the end you are cheating not only everyone else but also yourself. Volkswagen by falling behind in the shift to electric and Khosla in making his own community less viable. At the same time there are companies and communities out there, like Tesla (at lest for their customers), trying to do their best to provide as much value as possible.

While I get your point about tragedy of the commons I would still put that in the same category. I isn't like billionaires are the sole source of dysfunction in the world. It is a larger issue about giving up your own position for the benefit of more people so you all have something to build on. Certainly dysfunctional government, whether corrupt or democratically so, is part of that as well.

This is especially important with increasing complexity, and increased leverage in complexity. You can't really predict what specifically is going to make the difference.