What is the mechanism by which Warren Buffet creates wealth by himself? If you’re talking about investing, couldn’t a good supercomputer hypothetically do the same job for free? Anyways, Buffet doesn’t do all of his own investments: most capitalists don’t. They engage in joint ventures and mutual funds. Their only “contribution” to these is being the owner of investment funds (an arbitrary title when removed from historical context). Buffet does contribute to society but not (through some divine justice) proportionate to the compensation he is allotted.
Consider if Warren Buffet’s teachers had not taught him to do math and he hadn’t had the opportunity to do anything he did. What if his local librarian wasn’t able to help him find books on investment, if he hadn’t happened upon mentors who could teach him business, if he had been born poor and had to work minimum wage from a young age. Now consider if there are other potential Warren Buffets who would thrive as much as him given the opportunity but actually DO experience such setbacks.
Anyways, to assume that private investment is a social imperative is not friendly to reality. China right now has a totalitarian government which controls investments (including closely regulating foreign investment), and its economy has been exploding for decades as a result of infrastructure investment. There are plenty of models in-between China and the US which also function fine.
In the United States, we consistently overestimate the contribution of private industry in developing our infrastructure. Cars are only possible because of roads, telephones were only possible because of telephone wires, the internet & technology revolution were only possible because of massive Cold War defense department spending (the ARPANET was the prototype for the internet). It is not an exaggeration to say that the public has a far greater stake in private business than it realizes. In some cases, the privatization of public research can justifiably be seen as a transfer of wealth from taxpayers towards the fortunes of big business investors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
What is the mechanism by which Warren Buffet creates wealth by himself? If you’re talking about investing, couldn’t a good supercomputer hypothetically do the same job for free? Anyways, Buffet doesn’t do all of his own investments: most capitalists don’t. They engage in joint ventures and mutual funds. Their only “contribution” to these is being the owner of investment funds (an arbitrary title when removed from historical context). Buffet does contribute to society but not (through some divine justice) proportionate to the compensation he is allotted.
Consider if Warren Buffet’s teachers had not taught him to do math and he hadn’t had the opportunity to do anything he did. What if his local librarian wasn’t able to help him find books on investment, if he hadn’t happened upon mentors who could teach him business, if he had been born poor and had to work minimum wage from a young age. Now consider if there are other potential Warren Buffets who would thrive as much as him given the opportunity but actually DO experience such setbacks.
Anyways, to assume that private investment is a social imperative is not friendly to reality. China right now has a totalitarian government which controls investments (including closely regulating foreign investment), and its economy has been exploding for decades as a result of infrastructure investment. There are plenty of models in-between China and the US which also function fine.
In the United States, we consistently overestimate the contribution of private industry in developing our infrastructure. Cars are only possible because of roads, telephones were only possible because of telephone wires, the internet & technology revolution were only possible because of massive Cold War defense department spending (the ARPANET was the prototype for the internet). It is not an exaggeration to say that the public has a far greater stake in private business than it realizes. In some cases, the privatization of public research can justifiably be seen as a transfer of wealth from taxpayers towards the fortunes of big business investors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET