First, I think most of the intuitions here are captured well by the economics of natural (or in the case of patents, unnatural) monopolies. If Amazon were not a natural monopoly then the advantages of being first would only persist until a competitor entered the market, and Bezos would only earn those extra two (or whatever) years.
Second, I think the political critique of billionaires (and other capitalists) really has to be understood as a critique of power inequality rather than consumption inequality. The intuition “inequality isn’t that important, it’s absolute poverty that’s a problem” is pretty good as far as consumption goes but doesn’t capture most of what wealth can do - from control within workplaces to political influence to control through investment on path-dependent questions about how/whether we’ll pursue space colonization, AI, and responses to climate change. More concentration of wealth means more direction by either whatever happens to be profitable or whatever particular billionaires happen to like.
Two thoughts:
First, I think most of the intuitions here are captured well by the economics of natural (or in the case of patents, unnatural) monopolies. If Amazon were not a natural monopoly then the advantages of being first would only persist until a competitor entered the market, and Bezos would only earn those extra two (or whatever) years.
Second, I think the political critique of billionaires (and other capitalists) really has to be understood as a critique of power inequality rather than consumption inequality. The intuition “inequality isn’t that important, it’s absolute poverty that’s a problem” is pretty good as far as consumption goes but doesn’t capture most of what wealth can do - from control within workplaces to political influence to control through investment on path-dependent questions about how/whether we’ll pursue space colonization, AI, and responses to climate change. More concentration of wealth means more direction by either whatever happens to be profitable or whatever particular billionaires happen to like.