Eneasz

But in the USA, the majority of our billionaires have made their wealth by honourable means.

For coming after those billionaires isn't just bad for those billionaires.

It is revoking the code of honourable wealth.

It is returning to rule of the violent and slave economies and grinding global poverty.

Protecting the code is incredibly important not because it serves some billionaires, but because it serves every single person in our society that lives above the level of a 16th century peasant.

That's less than 9,000 words, but still won't fit on a sign.

Ah.

For a Stone Age billionaire.

Maybe a single vivid image can get across what I mean.

From Paul Graham's essay.

Quote.

A surprising number of people retain from childhood the idea that there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world.

I can remember believing, as a child, that if a few rich people had all the money, it left less for everyone else.

End quote.

This isn't just a surprising number of people, this is the default.

The world is full of stuff.

When you do work for someone they give you some of their stuff, and when you want something from someone else you give them some of your stuff.

The nature of specialization and global supply chains is such that almost no one sees new stuff being built in a way that noticeably grows the pool of all stuff, so it feels constant.

For most people their labor adds to the global pool of stuff the same amount their sweating changes the local humidity level.

Technically non-zero, but not so's you'd notice.