One problem with unbounded capitalism is that people can’t understand how big big numbers are. They think of themselves but slightly richer. So of course people should be able to accumulate the wealth of a city or a country, and there’s no negative aspect to that at all. They just worked like we do. And they should get gains on their wealth just like we do for our retirement. There’s no difference except a couple of zeros.
I'm not against "unbounded" capitalism, but certainly there should be things in place that ensure adequate competition is taking place. So I prefer "unfettered". I think this is of special concern given that the Silicon Valley Model is to literally become a monopoly. That's not good for anyone, including the company.
That said, obviously I have some concerns on the billionaire class, especially the hundred billionaires.
> can’t understand how big big numbers are.
It isn't just this (though it is true[0]), but that money works extremely differently at this scale. Interest is not a rounding error, or something you think about being influential down the line. Passive income is so great that it gets difficult to imagine. There's those sites[1] that have you try to spend a large fortune and they don't even get to the different part. That being that for people like Elon, anything on that list can be bought by a week's worth of... doing nothing. That the passive income is so high that the problem isn't even that you couldn't spend the money if it was not growing, but that it grows so fast that you can't even spend it if you tried really hard. Spending a static billion dollars is incredibly difficult and you have to get creative. But in the real world with interest, it is exponentially more difficult.
I think the best example of this is MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos's ex-wife. She's been spending her money as fast as she can and she "hasn't lost a dime". Forbes had her starting at $36bn and currently has her at $35.6B[2]. In the time since she has divorced Bezos she's given away nearly $17bn. We're talking less than 5 years.... In <5 years she's "spent" half of her static wealth and still has what she started with. Money at this level simply does not work the same way and a lot of people do not fundamentally understand this.
But there's also a psychological issue I don't get. What is the point of having so much "fuck you money" if you are not going to tell people to fuck off. Certainly they do at times, but often they don't. To have the wealth to do whatever you want, to be unconstrained, unburdened, and to still have anxiety and concern? To be stressed? I can understand that old habits die hard, but they do die.
[0] I started my academic life in physics. We do giant numbers and tiny numbers. I can with great certainty assert that our brains are not made to actualize these numbers. It is amazing that we have the math to work with them but when you stop to compare and it blows your mind. This is not done enough.
