And while the $100B winner may have had some insight that contributed to the $100B, there also had to be a $100B winner in an economy structured the way ours is. Consequently, we don't really know whether there's a reason to prefer their investment choices over the ones the state will make.
It currently remains unclear, for example, whether what Musk or Bezos have done with their vast wealth thus far will, in the medium or long term turn out to be a net benefit to society (it certainly has not been so in the short tem).
The belief in the business genius really is overblown. Yes, some folks are better at it than others, but when we run the economy like a casino, there will always be big winners no matter what personal qualities the players bring to the game.
Defense spending is not an investment in the economy, neither are entitlements.
The returns on government investments that are legitimate investments, however, are quite a bit less than the returns on the investments of rich people. The reason is simple - people who get rich off of investments are very, very good at it. Government bureaucrats are not.
Government investments are socialism, which have an inglorious history of poor returns.
> The belief in the business genius really is overblown
4 out of 5 business ventures fail. The survivors tend to be pretty good at it. You'd be very hard pressed to find a dummy who grew a business to a billion dollars. The ones who have done it more than once are very, very rare. (Like Steve Jobs, who did it 3 times.) If you want to argue that Jobs, Gates, Musk, Bezos, etc., just fell into it, go right ahead!
That's probably correct. However, if you tax $100b at 40%, then the person has only $60b to invest in creating more wealth.