2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Lots of traditionally alienated and disengaged people turned out for Sanders in the primaries [View all]Buckeye_Democrat
(15,061 posts)I think most of the big wealth in this country is ownership-related, usually with some document declaring such-and-such person owns this or that.
Nikola Tesla made a huge contribution to society with his AC motor invention, but he died penniless. He had sold the "legal right" of the invention to a wealthy investor named Westinghouse!
I like Bill Gates' liberal qualities and altruism, but I'll use him as an example too.
He didn't create DOS. He bought it from someone else, and thus had the ownership rights of it per a contract. He then got a great contract with IBM, retaining ownership of the software in a virtual monopoly when they came out with their PC's. Once that money rolled in, he could hire many people far more skilled than him!
I saw Bill Gates on some computer trivia show on TV many years ago, and he didn't know the answers to some questions that I thought were easy! Yet my only computer background was just a few programming classes toward a mathematics degree!
Bill's father used to be a contract lawyer.
Anyway, I'm not proposing a disruption of government-enforced contracts because they obviously serve an important purpose in a civilized society. It just irks me how often the "ownership class" in this country avoids various costs that they should be paying for their privilege as owners!
Yes, it's ridiculous that capital gains taxes are so low!