I was just reading an article in Socialist Worker complaining about capitalism. The same old arguments come up using the extreme example of Bill Gates' wealth as if it's an excellent example of how the free market creates inequality.
It couldn't be further from the truth. There may have been many headlines in recent years of big governments going after Microsoft but people forget that this is minuscule compared to the utterly enormous support the government gives them. The only reason Bill Gates is so rich is precisely because the government grants them special rights on copyright physically enforced by government employees.
This subject is complex but the most obvious argument (and the whole point of those special rights) would be that Microsoft needs these protections because of the truly valuable product they offer to society.
As the years have gone by this argument has been shown to be weak.
It is the true free market (absolutely no special rights) that has produced Ubuntu Linux which provides a complete alternative to all of Microsoft's products, and arguably an improvement. I soley use it.
Not only is it questionable whether property rights can be granted to copies of software but it almost certainly impedes the success of true free market solutions which are of significant value to the world.
Footballer's wages are another example commonly used to show extreme inequality in our society missing the point that one of the main reasons they are so high is because of the success of Sky TV's encryption. This encryption is fast becoming irrelevant as unlicensed TV streaming websites are becoming very popular and the future of the topic back in the hands of the government.
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