Re:Billionaires Build
by webmaven on Saturday December 05, 2020 @06:59PM
(#25319609)
> Is Bill Gates degrading or improving the lives of people on the whole? Same question for Elon Musk.
Only part of Bill Gates' wealth is attributable to the value he created. At least some of that wealth was due to establishing and protecting monopolies on desktop operating systems and office suites.
Yes, quite a bit of harm was done as a side effect of protecting those monopolies, not to mention from extending them into other markets. The simplest and most direct harm was an extra $50 tacked onto the price of every desktop PC purchased even if you didn't want (or already had) a copy of Windows.
As for Musk, it's early days yet, and his companies are still in "Blue Ocean Strategy" mode. We'll have to wait and see what happens once SpaceX and Tesla are defending an entrenched position.
Only part of Bill Gates' wealth is attributable to the value he created. At least some of that wealth was due to establishing and protecting monopolies on desktop operating systems and office suites.
Yes, quite a bit of harm was done as a side effect of protecting those monopolies, not to mention from extending them into other markets. The simplest and most direct harm was an extra $50 tacked onto the price of every desktop PC purchased even if you didn't want (or already had) a copy of Windows.
As for Musk, it's early days yet, and his companies are still in "Blue Ocean Strategy" mode. We'll have to wait and see what happens once SpaceX and Tesla are defending an entrenched position.