If you favor taxing billionaires more, that means you want to transfer resources from @BillGates, who is revolutionizing philanthropy and saw #COVID19 threat years ago, to the US govt, who have disastrously bungled our response to the virus.
Here's why that's wrong.
Here's why that's wrong.
Humans are deeply egalitarian, and it's our nature to be concerned about economic inequality. Through the 10,000 yrs of agriculture, those who amassed wealth did it by conquering mass regions and controlling masses of people. So that's our intuition about billionaires.
But in the last few centuries, with the industrial revolution, a new way to be rich appeared: Invent something that many people want, and scale production to benefit millions. More and more of our billionaires got their wealth by cleverly helping many people, @paulg style.
So when we hear "billionaire", we think of pillaging nobles, growing fat from the labor of serfs, b/c that's who used to be rich! But today, $Bs are people like @elonmusk @peterthiel @JeffBezos @BillGates who are both brilliant and practical, who think big then build it.
Solving big problems is hard. The modern world is so complex, so big, and changes so rapidly, it takes a special kind of mind to understand it.
Take exponential growth, which is a key reason why a virus like cov19 can get so deadly so fast. Few people truly get it.
Take exponential growth, which is a key reason why a virus like cov19 can get so deadly so fast. Few people truly get it.
Fortunately, we have a group - tech founders - who specialize in finding new answers as fast as humanly possible. The contrarian techies I know started worrying about cov19 in mid-January. By mid-February, they were creating guides on how to prepare and respond.
Today, they are working to manufacture masks & ventilators in the US before we run out, studying prevention and treatment, ringing the alarm bells by calling their representatives. They are doing their damn best to save as many lives as possible BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT NERDS DO!
We nerds are a tribe like any other. Attack our leaders, demean their accomplishments, take what they made, and you attack us all. Cov19 shows how stupid and dangerous that is, because nerds are your greatest resource against weird new scary modern threats.
The late-bloomers, the kids who got shoved in lockers, who had trouble getting dates for prom - we are your first, best, and last line of defense against 21st century Black Mirror problems like cov19.
It's past time to switch from scapegoating us to respecting us.
It's past time to switch from scapegoating us to respecting us.
