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by rhn_mk1 1393 days ago
I can get behind celebrating ambition, but only if it doesn't as a side effect involve widening wage inequality in the society.
3 comments

I'm reminded of Margaret Thatcher's response to this: "He'd rather the poor were poorer, as long as the rich were less rich."[1]

Every ethical dollar earned is a byproduct of value creation. Maybe you meant something more like "as long as he's not ripping off his customers," but otherwise that's an odd thing to say in response to someone who makes good money but is still looking for side jobs.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdR7WW3XR9c&t=48s

Oh stop it. Every time we make progress there will be some unequal effect. Some people will benefit and others will lose out. We should do our best to balance the trade offs, but to say someone shouldn’t be ambitious if there is some unequal effect is preposterous and pessimistic.
Why does wage inequality matter? Inequality isn't strongly driven by wages, but is by capital income.

Personally, the way I see it, the more money goes to wages, the better, and if that's because some guy is earning millions a year, I still think it's good.

Income from people starting new companies, that's fine too. What's bad is rent extraction, ossification, monopolies and private institutions that have power over people.