>JOHN STOSSEL: (voice-over) Bill Gates is a good example. He's now the world's
>richest man.
>He's got about $40 billion. But does his having $40 billion mean the rest of
>us have lost $40
>billion? No.
>
>BILL GATES, CEO, Microsoft Corporation: It's been fantastic...
>
>DAVID KELLEY: You see, this is the fallacy that there is some pool of wealth
>there that's fixed.
>And if I take more, you get less. That's not true. Wealth is constantly being
>created.
>
>JOHN STOSSEL: (voice-over) Gates got so rich by making the pie bigger for
>everyone.
No, Gates got rich by staking claims to the cash flow unleashed by the labor of others. "Gates" himself has created next to nothing. Well there was that version of MBASIC he & Allen did in the late 1970s, but they didn't invent BASIC. Neither did they invent word processing, graphical interfaces, or anything. No one not drawing a Microsoft paycheck has ever argued that their products were particularly innovative or particularly great. And since when did "Gates" make the pie bigger for everyone? Thousands of people working for Microsoft, from its multimillionaires to the prison laborers who pack Windows boxes, did. And the Microsofties appropriated the work of generations before them, going back to Babbage and Lovelace (and much of it subsidized by governments and universities). But since Gates is one of the principal owners of Microsoft, he has the legal right to pocket the proceeds of other people's labor. How piggy.
Doug