(Drivebycuriosity) - Envy rules. Some progressives, also called liberals, want to tax the rich - much higher than today. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and others call for a wealth tax. They are following the zeitgeist. Billionaires are unpopular. How dare Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk & Co. to amass so much riches. "“I don’t think billionaires should exist,”, tweeted Bernie Sanders (blairbelle). Really? The proposers of a wealth tax want to force the super-rich to share a large part of their wealth. Should they?
Did Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson & Co. accumulate their wealth at the expense of the society? Did their rising wealth reduce the wealth of others? Are they the plutocrat masters who keep all the gains of globalization to themselves? Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos & the late Steve Jobs all got super-rich by building up huge companies. These billionaires entrepreneurs had ideas, they took risks and worked hard. Should they get punished for that?
Yes, these billionaires benefited a lot, but so did we, the society. Prof. Nordhaus, winner of Economics Nobel Prizes 2018, wrote In his 2004 paper “Schumpeterian Profits in the American Economy: Theory and Measurement,” : “Only a minuscule fraction of the social returns from technological advances over the 1948-2001 period was captured by producers, indicating that most of the benefits of technological change are passed on to consumers rather than captured by producers.” (aier.org). According to Nordhaus "producers, on average, capture a mere 2.2% of the total benefits of their successful introduction into markets of technological advances. A whopping 97.8 % of those benefits are enjoyed by people each of whom as a consumer did nothing other than exercise his right to spend his money on those options that he judges best for himself.
Look for instance on James Dyson—creator of the eponymous vacuum cleaner, fan and hair dryer. His bagless vacuums and HEPA filters have improved quality of life for many and helped reduce waste in landfills (fisherinvestments). In the process of making many of our lives better through capitalism, he has also become loaded, with a net worth of about $13.9 billion according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Bill Gates` became super rich because Microsoft `s software made calculating & managing companies and everyday life much easier. Jeff Bezos amassed his fortune because he pioneered e-commerce & cloud-computing and his obsession with customer service, low costs & prices forces the whole retail industry to get more efficient and customer friendly. The Amazon effect is keeping inflation at bay and making the economy more efficient & flexible.
Who Is The Better Investor?
Sanders, Warren & Co, seem to think that the billionaire`s wealth would be in better hands when they take it away. Does the government know to use the money better than these billionaires? Gates, Musk, Bezos & Co. have a proven talent for finding and investing in successful technologies & businesses. What business experience do Warren, Sanders & their bureaucrats have?
Elon Musk invests in a lot amazing projects (wikipedia):
- Boring Company which builds tunnel boring machine. Musk wants to dig a network of cheap tunnels which are optimized for electric vehicles. By late 2018, the Boring Company had active construction, approved plans in place, or an operational tunnel in several areas of the United States: Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.
- Hyperloop - a high-speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. On July 20, 2017, Elon Musk announced that he had received verbal government approval to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., stopping in both Philadelphia and Baltimore.
- OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity. By making AI available to everyone, OpenAI wants to "counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry." Musk has stated he wants to counteract the concentration of power.
- Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. The company is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow more direct interfacing with computing devices.
Bill Gates invests a part of his fortune in a series of startups including (businessinsider):
- Grail - a life sciences company working to develop technology that could spot cancer before it's incurable.
- Varentec, which develops products for electrical grid systems, including a software platform that lets cities more easily manage how power flows. The startup claims that its devices can help utility operators reduce wasted voltage, manage peak power demands, and avoid overloading circuits.
- Convoy - the trucking service matches drivers and carriers with shipping jobs as a sort of Uber for trucking,
- EtaGen - a startup producing ultra-efficient generators that supply power for companies, buildings, and microgrids.
- Impossible Foods, whcih is on a mission to engineer plant-based "meat" that tastes like the real thing. Gates also invested in the competitor Beyond Meat, which is now traded on Nasdaq, and Memphis Meats which is working to cultivate meat from animal cells in a lab.
- Change.org - a popular site where people can start petitions for specific causes. Current US-based petitions include one to strengthen gun laws and one supporting farmworkers' rights.
Jeff Bezos invests his private money into a variety of start-ups including (visualcapitalist).:
- EverFi - an online education and certification firm.
- Unity Biotechnology - a life-extension research firm hoping to slow or stop the process of aging.
- Juno Therapeutics - aims to develop a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy drugs.
- Plenty - an indoor vertical farming company that uses less space and fewer resources to grow fresh produce year-round.
- Zocdoc - an online medical care appointment booking service, providing free of charge medical care search facility for end users by integrating information about medical practices and doctors' individual schedules in a central location
- Grail (like Gates)
- Convoy (like Gates)
Bezos, Elon Musk & Richard Branson, the British owner of the Virgin Group, are also developing independently from each other rockets
for space flights. (Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin). The three
billionaires aim to make space travel affordable by making rockets reusable. They do a service for whole world by risking their
private money for space flights which may give humanity some day more chances to survive.
The investments by Musk & Co. are supporting the world and humanity by fostering innovation, reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, fighting cancer, supporting education and much more. If their money would be taken by the government it would get into the hands of bureaucrats which are less efficient & competent. Transferring money to the government often leads to waste, inefficiency
& corruption as you can see in New York where building a subway costs far more than elsewhere the world (marginalrevolution).
Don`t Kill The Charities
If the billionaires have to give their money to the government they will spend much less for charity. That would be sad, because America`s culture depends on charities. In 2017 Americans gave over $400 billion to charitable causes with the largest growth in contributions coming from foundations created by major philanthropists (i.e. the ultra-rich) ( ofdollars). Cultural landmarks like Manhattan`s Carnegie Hall are financed by philanthropists. If you visit New York`s Metropolitan Museum of Art - or any huge American museum - you might notice that most of the displayed art works are donated by some wealthy families or individuals (google). Even the running costs (administration etc) are partly financed by donations. American universities and hospitals are also funded by donations (forbes). The Rockefeller Foundation, based on the oil profits by the Rockefeller family, has been supporting science, education, culture & health care for decades.
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates developed "The Giving Pledge" in 2010 to encourage the world’s wealthiest individuals to give away more than half of their wealth to charitable causes. To date more than 204 individuals and families have pledged to donate over $500 Billion. Bill & Melanie Gates Bill Gates declared that they are willing to give half their wealth to vetted charities of his choosing (americanthinker).
Billionaires like Musk, Bezos, Gates are making the world a better place. The government should not try to stop them.
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