Comment by imgabe

GDP, as I understand it, is the total value of all goods and services produced. It seems that in order to give someone something, it has to be taken from someone else who has it. But there is no single person or entity who owns the GDP, so how can a share of it be given to anyone?

It seems what Sam is suggesting is using taxes to redistribute wealth and provide a basic income, which, sure I think a lot of people are already on board with that and more will be as time goes on. But this idea of equity in a country is only confusing the issue.

A government is not a corporation. It does not exist to generate a profit. It should not be run that way. There is no "market" for governmental products or services. A government is necessarily a monopoly over a specific geographic area.

This seems like an extreme case of "If all you have is a hammer...". Sam clearly lives and breaths startups and business, so maybe he sees everything through that lens. It doesn't apply here and I don't think it's very helpful.