[extropy-chat] Bloodless Redistribution of Wealth

[John K Clark]

"The Avantguardian" <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>

> Bill Gates's first billion was probably very useful to him.
> He might even have thrown a party to celebrate. His 40th
> billion, however, he probably hardly noticed.

Yes and he probably uses .01% on himself, the rest is invested in his
software company. He does not have 40 billion pictures of George Washington
in a huge money bin like Scrooge McDuck.

And by the way, Gates's wealth would be closer to 80 billion if he hadn't
already given so much away, mostly to help the third world.

> The idea being that for a few billion dollars, all the
> bills or coins of a given denomination issued within a
> defined time period would feature the "winner's"
> picture on it. [..] The idea is similar to that of vanity license plates.

I thought you were joking at first even though it's not April 1, but
apparently you're serious!

> This is a positive sum solution because despite the loss of a sizable
> portion of the donors wealth

Billionaires won't mind giving up wealth and power as long as they get a
vanity license plate and their picture on a box of Wheaties. I've got to
double check, this must be April 1.

> money raised by my idea ought to go to
> humanitarian causes.

What money? When people say Steve Jobs is worth 5 billion they mean there
are investors willing to pay 5 billion for his interest in a computer
company and a movie studio. But under your scheme Mr. X would not pay Jobs
anything for it because as soon as he got it you'd take it away from Mr. X.
If private investors are not running the show then what you're talking about
is nationalization.

Do you really think if Washington bureaucrats were running Apple Computer
they would come out with more innovative products than Steve Jobs can, or
Pixar Animation would make more entertaining movies. What you're talking
about is taking the controls of the wealth creation machinery from those who
have shown great skill in operating it into the hands of those who don't
know the first thing about it.

> Just make sure to remain as objective as possible when assessing whether
> you are changing the world for better or worse.

That should be easy! If history has taught us anything it is that there is
never any disagreement about what is right and what is wrong.

   John K Clark