[delichon]

I'm sending IP packets to you from a computer I bought from one billionaire, built by another billionaire, with an operating system made by another billionaire, over satellites built by yet another billionaire, through a web forum written by another billionaire. These people made billions by capturing a fraction of the value they created. The market is not a zero sum game.

[yoyohello13]

This weird 'hero narrative' that the CEO class build all the things needs to die. Those billionaires would be nothing without standing on the shoulders of the workers.

[Jensson]

You are right, which is why the workers get so much more than the CEO. Basically no CEO makes more money than his workers combined, he adds a small percentage of the value so he gets a small percentage of the revenue. In a typical company most revenue goes to workers, then a smaller part to leaders for organizing the workers and payback to investors who invested in the equipment for the workers.

If you don't pay leaders to organize or investors for equipment then workers wont have organization or equipment and will be much less productive, it is better this way. This makes workers richer under capitalism than any other economic system tried.

[ModernMech]

> built by another billionaire, with an operating system made by another billionaire, over satellites built by yet another billionaire, through a web forum written by another billionaire

Billionaires did not build any operating systems or computers or launch any satellites or write any web pages you are using. Workers built those things while billionaires watched.

Linux is a testament to how much we don't need billionaires to organize ourselves to create these things.

[insane_dreamer]

you're conflating technological progress with prosperity

[doctorwho42]

Wait, your operating system was coded by one single individual? Holy shit that must have taken him 10 life times, if not more!

Wow, you know a person who can mine, smelt, and forge steel into a computer case... While still having time to mine, process, purify, reprocess, and design the whole die process not just for a CPU but GPU's and all matter of electronic components!?!!??!

Holy shit, you know someone who can design, assemble, and launch not one comm sat...but dozen?!?! And he builds the rockets all by himself as well?!?!? And he built the ground stations and infrastructure required to power and connect to them?!!?!

Oh you know a guy who can write a forum.... Yeah that's kind of neat I guess...

But let's be real here. These single individuals did not produce Thousands upon thousands of life times worth of value by their lonesomes. It required standing upon the shoulders of countless individuals, not even taking into account the organizational structures of governments, their utilities, and people long dead who built the world they used to make their billions.

[SimianSci]

We have more companies that can be classified as monopolies in existence than ever before. In principal our market is not a zero sum game, but in practice we see it quickly collapsing to become one.

How many of the billionaires you mention are themselves the proginy of previously wealthy parents?

[skybrian]

At least in the US, it wasn't better in the past. Railroads were often private monopolies on certain routes. The Interstate highway system is much more open in comparison (lots of competition in trucking), and so is the Internet.