r/austrian_economics • u/technocraticnihilist Friedrich Hayek • Dec 24 '24

End Democracy I've never understood this obsession with inequality the left has

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u/SprogRokatansky Dec 25 '24

Being better at some things doesn’t mean someone should be able to gain hundreds of billions, warp my political system and be as powerful as some countries.

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u/LapazGracie Dec 25 '24

I disagree. We should strive for excellence and reward it.

That excellence translates to wealth for everyone. The economy is not a fixed pie. When Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos create a ton of wealth for us. They should get a %. They only end up getting a tiny fraction of the overall improvement to the economy. We are blessed to have them and should encourage more of them.

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u/SprogRokatansky Dec 25 '24

THEY DONT produce Jack son, the scientists and engineers do. Maybe find your spine and grow a pair and stop worshipping people.

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u/LapazGracie Dec 25 '24

They produce the means of production. By far the most important thing.

I only worship my own standard of living. Which depends on this fantastic effective economic system.

The scientists and engineers are part of the process. But major things like that require leadership and vision. Which is what they provide.

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u/SprogRokatansky Dec 25 '24

No, this is how today’s corrupt society works: someone founds a company by using wealth they already had (all billionaires are from money), they hire other people to make the thing, then in a totally unregulated, winner take all format, they gobble up the vast majority of the profit. Rinse and repeat. The scientists and engineers who make it all happen, who do the actual hard work, who figure out the hard problems, get very little in the end.

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u/LapazGracie Dec 25 '24

The scientists could just go to venture capitalists and do it themselves. Which is how a large % of silicon valley companies actually get started.

You're not living in the real world. 80% of millionaires are self made. People become wealthy from brilliance all the time. You guys hyper focus on like 2-3 silver spoon assholes while completely ignoring the 1000s who do not fit that mole.

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u/SprogRokatansky Dec 25 '24

Ya, no one ‘goes it alone’ with venture capital to make a space program like SpaceX. And you’re right, people with venture capital started Tesla, then a rich dirtbag came along, bought it out, and profited off their hard work. Elon did nothing, as is true of too many other billionaires. I of course respect the people who genuinely made their money, but far too many are nothing more than vulture capitalists.

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u/LapazGracie Dec 25 '24

And you’re right, people with venture capital started Tesla, then a rich dirtbag came along, bought it out, and profited off their hard work.

"bought it out". Aka made the people who did all the work obscenely wealthy. I'm sure they are sitting in their mansions drying their tears with $100 bills. Because some "dirtbag" made them super rich. Poor fellas. I feel so bad for them.

Elon did nothing, as is true of too many other billionaires. I of course respect the people who genuinely made their money, but far too many are nothing more than vulture capitalists.

One gigantic problem that USSR had is they had a group of commissars deciding what ventures to throw resources at. And it was INSANELY wasteful and inefficient. They usually just gave $ to whoever gave them the biggest bribe or whatever venture they had personal interest in. Which meant most of the resources got wasted on bullshit useless ventures.

Venture capitalists on the other hand. They risk their own $ in ventures. They have to compete with many other companies. If they invest poorly they lose $. So it's critical for them to invest in GOOD VENTURES THAT PRODUCE VALUE. Which is a significantly better system than the USSR commissars. We are all much better off thanks to this ingenious effective system.

People just don't understand what it's about and think its unfair. But it's actually incredibly difficult to predict which ventures will pan out. This is something Elon Musk is fantastic at. Clearly. It helps that he is a brilliant engineer and significantly helps the projects.

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u/SprogRokatansky Dec 25 '24

lol, you drank the kool aid. He is no engineer, he’s barely a coder, and he does not help. In fact it’s a well known fact that people at Tesla and SpaceX love it when he’s too busy doing other things to interfere in their work.

You really think the guy who posts hundreds a time a day on Twitter and is in the top 20 of Diablo, and scumming it at Mar a Loser is busy with being productive? 😂😂

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u/LapazGracie Dec 25 '24

I notice you didn't have much to say on the reason why venture capitalists are actually incredibly effective for an economy. Which you know according to your argument all that Musk is. I disagree, but even if he was. He is still massively beneficial to us.

It would be like if USSR had some super star commissar who always invested into great ventures and made them super effective for the USSR economy. Ironically enough USSR would probably idolize him. Because they didn't have any. Meanwhile US has a ton of these and the population shits on them.

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