Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_this_city
Most entrepreneurs starting out don't have an extra million laying around they can gamble on their idea. They scrape and save every dime for years and then risk it all. The few who are successful deserve to be rewarded. Many of them lose everything two or three times before they find success. The road to success is littered with failures along the way. The vast majority lose everything and never recover.
I strongly disagree with the premise its everyone's responsibility to top off people who are quite often irresponsible, lack drive or are just plain useless. Your remuneration should be based on your contribution to society, not the number of hours you spend working. There would be no incentive to do anything difficult or challenging if you could get roughly the same doing mindless work or just coasting.
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I don't disagree with your first paragraph at all. Those people should be rewarded I agree. At the same time, there can be a point where they have been and are being rewarded far and above what is even considered excessive. If someone risked it all, worked their tail off, and created Microsoft, they deserve their success and the ability to live the life of excess they have earned. But there are people who have enough to live that life of excess many times over, and that to me, is a problem.
As for your second paragraph, again, I strongly agree minus the bolded part. As that as just as much of an oversimplification, than the idea that people achieving exuberant wealth aren't necessarily "earning" it. But we may disagree on what a positive contribution to society is. I would argue that the social workers life provides a much more positive contribution to society than the inventor of the no-no, or the sham-wow, or any other product that, while can make someone rich, and are things people want, IMO have no actual value to our society as a whole.
I think I've made my points though, and I don't want this thread further bogged down in my personal theories on money and social benefit. So thanks to everyone for the respectful discussion! If you want to discuss it further feel free to PM.