Ryan Sang's Blog

Not anti-capitalist, just anti-capital

I'm a socialist but also broadly in favor of markets. Trade is hard, allocating resources is hard, and markets do a reasonable job of this (outside of what we functional programmers would call side effects). But even given this fondness for markets, I am generally opposed to large corporations (and for similar reasons, billionaires). And I've realized a core reason why is the non-linearity of wealth gain. Specifically, being wealthier makes it easier to become even wealthier. Which isn't something I'm opposed to - this property will emerge out of most ways to structure an economy. What bugs me is the proportionality - wealth grows exponentially, not linearly. This is the key thing I dislike. Wealth is proxy for power to shape the world and I dislike that this power increases exponentially.