if everyone builds a pyramid, & one person puts the last top block on, shd we pay only that one person.. ?????

Question

for building the pyramid?

[remember that the pyramid doesnt exist till the last block is put on]

is that what we are doing with bill gates & all other billionaires?

Answer 1

of course

Answer 2

The analogy fails dramatically because Bill Gates paid for everything below him. All the parts that lead up to the top of the pyramid were paid for by Bill Gates. What Gates did was make the pre-existing parts more valuable.

The Microsoft empire began almost by accident. IBM was concerned about only one firm supplying it with an operating system. Firms showed up for the competition to be a firm supplying the parts. Bill Gates bought QD-DOS (literally quick and dirty drive operating system) from its maker. Its competition was selling the same component for well over 10 times the price but it worked great. What became MS DOS was terrible. It was furthered along by the arrogance of the competition. They so insulted the IBM representatives that they probably would have paid a much higher price for MS-DOS just to not have to deal with the leading product company. Had human factors not entered into the equation, Gates would have probably been selling oats right now, but Gates satisfied his customer and the leading firm did not.

As the product grew, Microsoft well rewarded its early participants who build the majority of the base of the pyramid. Of course all of those people have moved on to other things. Gates is still there standing at the top.

Microsoft invented nothing, but it put together other peoples parts in a way people would buy. Nothing of Windows is likely truly from Microsoft. Most of the current system can be traced to the Commodore Amiga which had all the same features ten years earlier. Of course how many Amigas do you see out there now? Other features come from Apple and earlier predecessors.

We are not only paying that one person but that one person has bought out other people's right to the rest of the money. Most people really don't want the opportunity to be rich until it is a sure thing so they sell their patent rights. The lyrics to "The Gambler" were sold for $25,000 to Kenny Rogers because the song writer wanted cash now. He missed out on millions. This is normal actually. Most people would trade a moderate reward today for a potential huge reward in the future (but one that may never materialize or you could even go bankrupt).

The billionaires are mostly people who would take the risk of self destruction and would work 60 hours per week without vacations.

Answer 3

Even if I pay a guy to put my block at the top, I don't own the pyramid unless I bought or was given ownership of the whole thing.

If I have a lot of blocks out on my property, and I let people make a pyramid out of them under no contract (like for fun), the pyramid is mine: I still own all those blocks, and I have the right to say that people should not destroy the pyramid after that, since it's all my property anyway.

If they all but build the pyramid and I have to pay a guy to put the last one on, it's still completely mine. This is like when companies pay a guy to put together existing software and hardware to solve their specific problems. What you are paying for is the labor. Companies do a lot of this. As long as I own or they can rightfully sell me the pieces used in addition to the labor, you can see it's completely kosher. The same applies if the pieces were released into the public domain for everyone to use freely - in that case I own them as much as anybody else.

If I draw up contracts with workers to build a pyramid, then I'm obligated to honor all those contracts. If the pyramid is built and I didn't pay them, then I stole labor from them. It isn't that the pyramid is theirs, it's that the labor they already gave me (and can't take back) was stolen, and I owe them the money I agreed to pay.

What seems to be more common is something like this: I contract with some guy who says "pay me $2 million, and I'll get you a pyramid built." Then he draws up contracts with lots of workers, who build the pyramid. But when I pay him, he doesn't pay the workers like he told them. In this case I own the pyramid, since he persuaded the workers to give him labor, which he then gave to me. But that $2 million isn't all his, since he owes the workers what he agreed to pay them.

Unfortunately, that kind of stuff also helps to build fortunes. But I hope I convinced you that it is either a clear-cut case of theft, or not really a problem.

Answer 4

No every worker gets their share. But Bill Gates and any business owner/society takes a small amount from the person below them (profit) and collectively that makes for a large paycheck for the man on top.

Answer 5

Doink! So we pay only the person that puts the last nail in your home? The person that puts the last rivet in your car? I don't think so.

The pyramid might not be completed until the capstone is in place, but EVERYONE did the labor. It would be the end of our economy if only one person out of thousands was paid. Sorry, this is a screwy idea.

Answer 6

With a vast majority used to just 'gaping' at things upwards, with a very low sense of awareness, we cannot expect anything better.... and with the sense of security afforded by the present day social set up.... concrete jungles (free of wild animals, poisonous creatures.. vulnerability), mechanised food processing, weather-vagaries well controlled, dole for unemployed etc, ....... the level of alertness to really perceive through focused observation (not just gaping), the mind set undergoes a change too difficult to reverse, and they meekly accept even manageable calamities !

Answer 7

Umm. that is a silly analogy. Bill Gates founded his own company. So what exactly are you talking about?

Answer 8

no everyone should get the same amount but if it was me that put the last block on then i would agree with you

Answer 9

a better question is who gets to be that one person