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I don't know why you chose to write your first sentence, which is so hyperbolic it makes you into a personal joke (he'll die alone and unloved? really? Why not add, "as a meth addict in a homeless shelter in Rio, on the run from the law after attempting to stick up a group of tourists with a butter knife.")

If 18 people can build a $1 billion Internet company, you can do the same while subsidizing out up to a few hundred $80K salaries (let's say $8M/year burned, which is 100 such employees) without any consequence whatsoever. Zero.

After your intro sentence, which sounds like you're attempting to get everyone to stop reading and downvote you, by writing something patently ridiculous, your second sentence is interesting.

Now that nobody is reading, you write:

>The people he tried to help will be struck down with him as they lose the jobs they've scrabbled their whole lives to maintain.

This is interesting. Yes, he is paying well above-market for these jobs. What is the consequence? Someone working as a janitor for $80K is in a job he or she could not ever hope to replace should they lose it.

What about hiring? Since he is paying above market (double), the natural result is that he should have 800 applicants for any job that becomes available. (The only reason he wouldn't is information dissemination.) i.e. if there are 100,000 janitors making $30K working a city, it would make sense for 50,000 of them to apply to him for $80K.

This could have a very large distorting effect. Or, maybe it won't.

We're still not talking 6 figures here. While doubling someone's wage is a very large step up, it is by no means the kind of step that completely distorts the market. And what if someone does scramble to keep or get an $80K job, but actually loses it? In fact, people lose cushy jobs they're happy with all the time. I think this is interesting and unfortunate, but by no means will ruin the people who enjoyed a period of unexpected windfall. In effect, they just become very moderate lottery winners. (They "win" a free excess doubling of their salary, while it lasts.)