Bezos did not get rich by "discovering" internet shopping. He just executed it better than others (ie generated more consumer surplus), year after year. If Bezos was never born, there would be no replacement Amazon two years later.
As others have mentioned, Walmart has been trying for 20 years to be "replacement Amazon:"
- they've invested billions, while Bezos had to start in his garage
- they already had a massive logistics network
- they got to use actual Amazon as a model, which nobody would be able to do if Bezos hadn't been born
And yet they're still behind Amazon!
I can see your logic for pure "inventions," like Edison's lightbulb or Bell's telephone, where the founders got rich thanks to rents from patents. But Bezos has no patents and no rents; he just outcompetes year after year.
Another note: the majority of Bezos's wealth is essentially from gambling on Amazon stock. Anyone with $140 million in 1997 could have bet it all on Amazon and have $200B today. I think Bezos should be rewarded for being so bold. Others would have retired and diversified with a few million, or have been content with a job at DE Shaw.
Bezos did not get rich by "discovering" internet shopping. He just executed it better than others (ie generated more consumer surplus), year after year. If Bezos was never born, there would be no replacement Amazon two years later.
As others have mentioned, Walmart has been trying for 20 years to be "replacement Amazon:"
- they've invested billions, while Bezos had to start in his garage
- they already had a massive logistics network
- they got to use actual Amazon as a model, which nobody would be able to do if Bezos hadn't been born
And yet they're still behind Amazon!
I can see your logic for pure "inventions," like Edison's lightbulb or Bell's telephone, where the founders got rich thanks to rents from patents. But Bezos has no patents and no rents; he just outcompetes year after year.
Another note: the majority of Bezos's wealth is essentially from gambling on Amazon stock. Anyone with $140 million in 1997 could have bet it all on Amazon and have $200B today. I think Bezos should be rewarded for being so bold. Others would have retired and diversified with a few million, or have been content with a job at DE Shaw.