teamosil
DP Veteran
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- Oct 17, 2009
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complete BS. Gates is wealthy because he engages in activity that other people find useful and are willing to pay him for
Not really. If that were the whole story, wouldn't that mean Gates could have done just as well in Somalia? Do you believe that to be true? Even if he had somehow gotten the nutrion and education and whatnot there, he never could have gotten together the employees, the investors, the customers, the security and stability a company like that requires, etc.
Here is another way to look at it. The average productivity of a worker in the US is about $91k per year. The average compensation of a worker in the US is about $44k. So, for each employee Gates bring on, he is gaining $47k a year in value. Now, in Somalia where the education is bad, people are struggling with the basic neccesities, violence is everywhere, etc, the average productivity is less than $1k. So, Microsoft has about 110,000 employees. Realistically, they are almost all well above the average for productivity, but lets just assume they aren't to be on the conservative side. That would still mean that Microsoft is getting $5.2 billion a year more value out their employees here than they would if they were in Somalia. The things that make that possible all cost money- schools, hospitals, police, roads, etc. To ask them to chip in to keep that going just makes sense.