<story><title>Billionaires Build</title><url>http://paulgraham.com/ace.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bedhead</author><text>You are right about the feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty. The most uncomfortable one to talk about is basic social network effects. Two people meet at some prestigious college and get married - are we shocked they have children who are predisposed for success? Besides from having god-given IQ, they are likely some combination of ambitious, punctual, respectful of authority, long-term oriented, hard-working, etc. But would one of those parents have ever been interested in marrying and having kids with some high school dropout, someone from a vastly different social place and lacking those values? It&amp;#x27;s pretty rare. Society organizes itself around this stuff and it&amp;#x27;s extremely powerful. The two high school dropouts end up hooking up and having kids and it&amp;#x27;s often times (though obviously not always) the opposite cycle. And yeah there are plenty of societal biases that are real, but I really don&amp;#x27;t think anything will ever be as powerful as this self-organizing dynamic of how people marry and have kids. It&amp;#x27;s cold and depressing and uncomfortable but it&amp;#x27;s reality.</text></item><item><author>drewrv</author><text>This essay uses a weak straw-man: &lt;i&gt;the only way to become a billionaire is by exploiting people&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think the &amp;quot;principle of charity&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;steel-man&amp;quot; criticism of billionaires isn&amp;#x27;t that every single billionaire is directly exploiting people. It would be closer to something like this:&lt;p&gt;The problem is that our society has feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty, and feedback loops that let the wealthy amass more wealth and power. It doesn&amp;#x27;t have to be this way, it&amp;#x27;s a product of our laws and can be changed.&lt;p&gt;Warren Buffet doesn&amp;#x27;t directly exploit anyone. However he does pay less taxes than his secretary. To the extent that Uber drivers and Amazon warehouse workers are exploited, it&amp;#x27;s because our society has millions of desperate people struggling to get by. What&amp;#x27;s the point of being the wealthiest nation ever on paper, if there&amp;#x27;s terrible schools, high infant mortality, and lead in the drinking pipes?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TheOtherHobbes</author><text>If they have those admirable middle class traits were they born that way? Or is cultural and social inheritance as influential as genetic inheritance?&lt;p&gt;I used to live in an upper middle class area, and a worrying number of the people were very polished thieves. They spent an unholy amount of time fighting over inheritances with other family members and over property boundaries with neighbours. When they worked - inevitably as land owners, landlords, upmarket real estate agents, investment advisors, lawyers, company directors, horse breeders, and so on - they&amp;#x27;d always pad their bills and expenses, inflate their prices, and cheat on their taxes.&lt;p&gt;Were they &amp;quot;successful&amp;quot; - in the sense of being very comfortably off? Of course they were.&lt;p&gt;Did they try to marry their own? Naturally - out of snobbery and opportunism if for no other reason.&lt;p&gt;Were they admirable human beings or truly productive members of society? Not noticeably. Between the drink and drug problems, the predictable infidelities and ensuing dramas, and the polished and educated facade hiding feral greed and entitlement, they looked good from the outside - not so much from the inside.&lt;p&gt;If you don&amp;#x27;t own shares&amp;#x2F;stocks to any significant extent your labour goes to supporting these people. They make a lot of money from &amp;quot;investments&amp;quot; and pretend this is a glorious, noble, and risky social service. In fact they&amp;#x27;re simply skimming money from the top of the economy into their own pockets - effectively wasting it when it could be put to work doing something innovative for future generations.</text></comment>
<story><title>Billionaires Build</title><url>http://paulgraham.com/ace.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bedhead</author><text>You are right about the feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty. The most uncomfortable one to talk about is basic social network effects. Two people meet at some prestigious college and get married - are we shocked they have children who are predisposed for success? Besides from having god-given IQ, they are likely some combination of ambitious, punctual, respectful of authority, long-term oriented, hard-working, etc. But would one of those parents have ever been interested in marrying and having kids with some high school dropout, someone from a vastly different social place and lacking those values? It&amp;#x27;s pretty rare. Society organizes itself around this stuff and it&amp;#x27;s extremely powerful. The two high school dropouts end up hooking up and having kids and it&amp;#x27;s often times (though obviously not always) the opposite cycle. And yeah there are plenty of societal biases that are real, but I really don&amp;#x27;t think anything will ever be as powerful as this self-organizing dynamic of how people marry and have kids. It&amp;#x27;s cold and depressing and uncomfortable but it&amp;#x27;s reality.</text></item><item><author>drewrv</author><text>This essay uses a weak straw-man: &lt;i&gt;the only way to become a billionaire is by exploiting people&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think the &amp;quot;principle of charity&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;steel-man&amp;quot; criticism of billionaires isn&amp;#x27;t that every single billionaire is directly exploiting people. It would be closer to something like this:&lt;p&gt;The problem is that our society has feedback loops that make it hard to escape poverty, and feedback loops that let the wealthy amass more wealth and power. It doesn&amp;#x27;t have to be this way, it&amp;#x27;s a product of our laws and can be changed.&lt;p&gt;Warren Buffet doesn&amp;#x27;t directly exploit anyone. However he does pay less taxes than his secretary. To the extent that Uber drivers and Amazon warehouse workers are exploited, it&amp;#x27;s because our society has millions of desperate people struggling to get by. What&amp;#x27;s the point of being the wealthiest nation ever on paper, if there&amp;#x27;s terrible schools, high infant mortality, and lead in the drinking pipes?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>benc666</author><text>Thank you for this well-thought (and written) comment.
Human nature - ignored at own peril.</text></comment>