News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person. Parent comment

Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by paulddraper on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @07:04PM (#13991438)
"Merit" could refer to many things, but yes, I think he directly/indirectly added more utility to people's lives than 100,000s of other people.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by manmal on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @07:14PM (#13991493)
I don't think money is a good proxy for "adding utility to people's lives". It's a good proxy for "good at playing the money game". A nurse won't be paid $1B if she saves a CEO's life, and he is able to go and make his company billions as a result. A clever business person might, if she saves the CEO in some other aspect, as she can setup a provision first.

That being said, I don't think money has much to do with merit, either. It's just the output of a function that you are either good at optimizing or not.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by paulddraper on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @10:59PM (#13992517)
Yes, supply comes into it too.

A nurse will be paid a substantial sum if she is one of very few that can save the CEO's life.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by mcbits on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @11:56PM (#13992744)
The CEO can die and the company will continue functioning 95% as well. Or maybe 105%, or 10%, or 1,000%.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by paulddraper on Thursday March 30, 2017 @03:07PM (#13998011)
If he's eating the shareholder's money like that, they should fire him.
[ Parent | on HN ]