Greed is good - Bill Gates needs $40B

[Catherine Browne]

If capitalists are claiming they need huge rewards to make them accept risk,
I think we need to identify the nature of the risk involved.  A guy who
works in an asbestos mine is risking his life.  Apparently he doesn't need a
$40 billion carrot to accept this risk.  Rather he feels the force of the
economic imperative - sell your labour or end up on the street.  Bill Gates,
given his background, will never be on the street and his risk can be
analysed as if it had something to do with a poker game.

Kate Browne

At 11:00 98-06-11 -0400, you wrote:
>Wojtek,
>
>If I walk into a casino with a dollar, place a bet and win $1,000,000
>dollars, does my risk/reward differ from the case in which I parley that
>same $1 bet all evening to $1,000,000? I'm not attempting to apologize for
>the claim that capitalists' risk yada yada yada, but rather, I question the
>assumption voiced on this list that one merely considers initial conditions
>and outcome and assesses risk/returns. Bill Gates et. al. may have a
>personal fortune of $40-50 bil (something like %80 in stock, right?), but
>the risk must capture the fact that he could have sold his shares and walked
>at any point. Getting back to my example, if one were to play poker, say,
>and be up by 100k, isn't one increasing risk by continuing to play?
>
>John
>
>John St. Clair
>University of South Florida
>Department of Philosophy
>Cooper 107
>Tampa, FL 33620
>
>Office: CPR 267
>Phone: 813-974-5896
>Hours: M 3-5, T 10-12
>http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~jstclair/
>
>
>
>