Lloyd Rang

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since January 9, 2000

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January 9, 2000, on How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates:
It seems to me that people's love and hatred of Bill Gates are both really a kind of self hatred. Let's face it, the people who hate Bill hate him because he's rich and greedy. They despise people like that-- but our entire capitalist system is based on the idea that greed is good. So, whether you're a teacher or a cop or a systems analyst, your hatred for Bill Gates is really a hatred for one of the most successful products of a system in which you (and i) are complicit. Hence, Bill-Loathing is a kind of self-loathing. On the other hand, the people who love him feel that way because he's successful tend to think that his success means that the system works. They aspire to be like him. Want to live the American Dream. Obviously, they're not very happy with thier own lives. Or else they desparately want to cling to the notion that capitalism is fair. That Bill got his money fair and square. Which means that they are not REALLY getting the short end of the stick, they're just no...