# How would the economy move forward (aka do the 99.9% need the 0.1%)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225 "2020-04-06T22:26:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225/41 "2020-04-09T11:36:32Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Ya, I’m building a large brewery incubator on the East coast (or was pre COVID) that is paid for by economic revitalization non-profit fund. Next we’re building a distillery incubator. They have picked up investment from a large philanthropic fund due to some energy saving techniques I added to the brewery specifically to attract their investment. If you want additional distractions, you can think about the exhaust stream from the brewing section. E.g. [https://www.lanzatech.com/](https://www.lanzatech.com/) I don’t know how small they go but they’ve been good at securing that fat government funding. I haven’t worked with them personally though. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225/42 "2020-04-09T13:19:29Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > But Jeff Bezos’ risk taking combined with his intelligence may be 10 million times as a skilled plumber or electrician. > > It’s not just intelligence that make these super wealthy individual more wealthy than the rest of us. It’s their ability to take calculated risks that the 99.9% of others don’t take. > > Bezos decided to start up a business that paid off. Most people aren’t willing to take those kinds of risks or they don’t have the intelligence to know when to take those risks. And what of it? If Amazon had never happened, we’d still have been able to buy stuff online. It might’ve happened a little more slowly, and we might not be able to buy practically everything at a single website. But the added benefit to society of Bezos having done what he’s done, v. Bezos having died in infancy, is really not that great. Certainly not great enough to reward him with a 12-figure fortune. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225/43 "2020-04-09T13:55:16Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And what of it? If Amazon had never happened, we’d still have been able to buy stuff online. It might’ve happened a little more slowly, and we might not be able to buy practically everything at a single website. But the added benefit to society of Bezos having done what he’s done, v. Bezos having died in infancy, is really not that great. You can’t actually know that to be true. Or false. You can just believe it to be true. We know that he helms a company that has produced a series of innovations that people are willingly throwing a lot of money at. We don’t know what others would have done without him. _You_ may not value Amazon much, but its investors do, at about $1T. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > Certainly not great enough to reward him with a 12-figure fortune. This isn’t a question of desserts to me, so I don’t see his fortune as a reward. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225/44 "2020-04-09T14:16:43Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > If you want additional distractions, you can think about the exhaust stream from the brewing section. > E.g. [https://www.lanzatech.com/](https://www.lanzatech.com/) > I don’t know how small they go but they’ve been good at securing that fat government funding. I haven’t worked with them personally though. We talk about CO2 recovery but its never been done at the scales I’ve worked at. At most we’ll capture, purify, and use it to carbonate beers. I’ve done one project where we were scrubbing acetaldehyde out of vodka with the CO2 stream but that was released to the atmosphere after its use. Most green stuff focuses on water and energy minimization since its the biggest bang for your buck until we get to a carbon tax of some sort. I’ll end the highjack here though. Thanks for some additional research. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-economy-move-forward-aka-do-the-99-9-need-the-0-1/851225.md?page=2)