[quote=CA renter]I’m sure it’s better for society if $1MM is split among 100,000 people, instead of having it go to one person.
If one has to choose between giving this money to a HF trader, or giving it to a handful of start-ups, or to an existing company that wants to expand to meet demand, I would certainly prefer the latter two.
The concentration of massive amounts of wealth — at the expense of many — has never led to a good ending.
BTW, I would put Bill Gates in an entirely different category than traders. At least he *worked* to earn his money (monopolies, notwithstanding).[/quote]
Bill Gates $56B in asset isn’t all from MSFT. He used his money he made from MSFT to invest in other companies as well. Then there’s Warren Buffett. MOST of his wealth came from investment.
That $1M wasn’t given to 1 person. That one person earned it. If that person didn’t earn that $1M, there’s no guarantee that 100k other people would magically earn a combined $1M more. If you’re talking about taxing $1M from one person to give another, well, reality is not panning out like your ideal scenario. That $1M might go from one person and given to another’s pension, or what we’ve seen recently, $700B was given to a few companies. Tell me, do you think the $700B in bailout dished out by the government help society more or the $600B that Warren Buffett is raising between the Billionaires for charity?
