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Michael R. Strain of the American Enterprise Institute has noted: Billionaire innovators create enormous value for society. In a 2004 paper, the Nobel laureate economist William D. Nordhaus found “that only a minuscule fraction” – about 2.2% – “of the social returns from technological advances” accrued to innovators themselves. The rest of the benefits (which is to say, almost all of them) went to consumers. If Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is worth $170 billion, then according to Nordhaus, he’s created over $7.7 trillion in value for society. Bezos has made each American around $23,000 richer. But Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders thinks an innovator’s 2.2 percent is too much. Sanders tweeted “Billionaires should not exist.” Continue reading on Substack.

From A Book with Legs Podcast: Live from the 2024 Smead Investor Oasis, venture capitalist George Gilder joins Bill and Cole Smead to discuss his latest work, “Life after Capitalism,” in which he redefines capitalism as a knowledge-based system. Gilder presents a vision of the future in which technological advances disrupt traditional capitalist structures, emphasizing innovation and knowledge over wealth accumulation. Listen here:

35 consumer goods take 54.4% to 94.9% less time to earn the money to buy. Most of us begin our work life as unskilled workers. But we learn new skills every day and this allows us to upgrade to higher-paying jobs. In a word, we enjoy career mobility. This is why it is important to follow a person’s path through their economic life.  We create categories to divide populations into groups. Categories can provide useful demographic snapshots. Categories don’t change but people move through categories throughout their lives. This is why in many cases it makes more sense to look at individuals instead of categories. We talk about this issue here. We looked at the time prices of 35 finished goods Read More ›