Some may know that I spent three years working in an office that gave away $5 million per year to nonprofits. Though the duration of that time was short, it had a disproportionate influence on my philosophy. That $5 million given away was the dividend from a $100 million investment. Today's ultra-wealthy are worth more than ten times that much.
Related to my own experiences, there's a valuable discussion in Preet Bharara's podcast conversation with Anand Giridharadas, related to Giridharadas' latest book Winners Take All. I'll advise that some of the best commentary is towards the end. At the beginning, most of Bharara's hypothetical scenarios are inadequate, but the challenge of inventing a suitable hypothetical scenario, and the answers to those hypothetical scenarios give you a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem.
Bharara is not just playing devil's advocate. The American Dream is part of what keeps the US economy going, but it's also created a hollowness to the economy that has led to major and minor collapses. I agree with Bharara that motivation is an extremely valuable thing. I disagree with some of Giridharadas' solutions or ideas that eliminating motivation might be good. My take is that the goal is not to eliminate motivation, but to make the motivation realistic - a stable economy cannot be based on the notion that everyone is going to win the lottery in the near future. And the point of the book is that the goal is to promote democracy; not plutocracy.*
*democracy itself is showing some of its weaknesses lately, but part of the problem is the influence which has risen as in the book's title Winners Take All. There is never perfection, but there are goals worth working towards; a better democracy being preferable to plutocracy, monarchy, or dictatorship.
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