That's more common in new high-end luxury yachts, it's a benefit to the guests as well (prob the main motivation?).

He's come a long way on the last decade. 

It's the new fancy castles. \ The most you can get detached from the pleb. If you wanted a huge luxury castle you needed the resources of maybe hundreds of villages and a staff of hundreds just for regular upkeep (you had to make all the products needed locally, from cleaning supplies to masonry, etc). But building a home for 1bn that can run on a staff of 10 ppl is hitting the limit. With mega/superyachts (ie luxury ships) it's a more exclusive game, this dude didn't just spend half billon on an object (that took 2000 people 3 or 4 years to build), it will also cost him 50~100 million in yearly upkeep.

GabeN is hardly rich enough to end poverty or even just hunger, and that's not the only important cause people could work on. I'd be happy if every billionaire picked some cause and donated to it, no need for society's input.

I can think that Steam at least provides a ton of services and value for that 30% , while also being annoyed that governments don't tax people more.

Financial (the capital's) success isn't the same as company success or even some sort of measure how much a company continues to society in more intrinsic terms. We have one success metric & we can't be surprised it's winning.

That is purely comestics.

They should be *reigned in as a monopoly*. That’s how it’s fixed. Nothing drastic either, just stop Valve from (say) dictating prices outside their platform, and do the same for Amazon and Walmart while they’re at it.

It's all of it. He takes too much for the services he offers. He gives too little to his employees. He isn't taxed enough for what remains. It makes sense that people can earn a few multiples over the median for working hard and maybe also for taking risks. It makes no sense that people can earn a million time as much as the median by not working hard and never facing actual risks.

Yeah, I want such giants (that are basically core infrastructure of a sector) to be regulated. \ Just whip up a law saying their margins can't be over 5% of a game's sale price (the reason is to boost smal devs & market competition). Worst case 10 ppl don't get richer. What, are they gonna quit the business bcs making only 100 million a year in net profit just isn't worth it & would rather go do manual labour in the mines instead? (Same logic as with taxes - if there was a 90% tax over 10 million ppl would still do the same things they do anyway, we were just taught to believe that someone earning 1bn per year would say *'no, it's not worth it for those 100m after taxes, I quit and now you can't buy my good overpriced phones anymore so you lose'*. It would never happen. The only difference would be in their wealth concentration, ie in their power over government/lobbies/public media.)

You didn’t say anything about where the money goes, you just said you can’t recall a Valve game with microtransactions or a battlepass. Dota has both. If we want to have a discussion about how they spend that money, then I agree, Valve does a much better job than EA or Blizzard or similar

Nah, they would be restored to perfection and upgraded with modern tech

They had to be forced into allowing refunds. They're pretty shit with dealing with hacked accounts. Their forced price parity rules effectively raise prices across the industry. Other companies being worse doesn't make this one defacto good.

That's a pretty significant pivot from the discussion about Steam's operating costs and revenue share.

As a NOT millionaire (technically I am homeless though in far better shape than some) boats are enjoyable and even fun. Paddle boats, row boats (my favorite), canoes, small and medium powered craft can all be a blast. I've never been on a yacht and wouldn't choose to the same as never having chosen to be on a regular tourist cruise or in a casino except for work. I don't like people that much. That cramped cabin and constant earthquake is only on a ship really. Even choppy seas aren't too bad. It sounds like you mostly hate water, which I understand. My gf is the same. Do you use swimming pools and if so, do you avoid the deep end? For me, I grew up around water, lakes and beaches, and my grandfather was in the coast guard auxiliary and had a cabin cruiser. Even a good summer weekend involves climbing into an inner tube and floating down a river all day.

Because not everyone is young enough to have just gotten into computers at a time when there's actual Linux compatibility with a significant percentage of software...

Doesn't make this one _good_

The point is a very small percentage of that 30% is being reinvested in the company and the vast majority is going into Gabe's pocket.

I don't misunderstand your point, I reject it. When have we *ever* seen a government care more about taking care of its people than gaining power for its rulers? The more money and responsibility you give to a government, the more corrupt it becomes. That said, I do think something like UBI makes sense. Make it a simple cash pass-through where everyone is brought above the poverty line. I personally would prefer to structure it as a negative income tax, so you qualify if your income is below some amount, and everyone is brought between the poverty line and a "living wage" (say, 2X poverty line). It's equivalent to UBI, just with less sticker shock and a clearer paper trail (need to file a tax return). Look at the government shutdown, social security is still going out, I want NIT to be the same (and ideally replace SS). I say we replace all welfare programs with a UBI-type system. Charities would then exist to help people manage that money, get out of addictions, etc... If people are mistreated at work, they'll have the option of leaving. If a child is mistreated, child protection services (could be a charity) can move the child and those tax dollars to a better home. UBI would solve a ton of problems just by ensuring everyone has enough. If we touch billionaires' money, it should be with inheritance laws. I think we should tax all assets as if they were liquidated if they aren't donated to a qualifying charity. That's the biggest loophole I know about, and it should be closed.

That's a very specific and bold claim about Valve's internal finances. Do you have access to their private balance sheets and investment budgets? Unless you do, we're both just speculating. Factually speaking: Valve provides a massive, global storefront, handles all payment fraud and chargebacks, provides cloud storage for games, and maintains the entire friend/community network. The 30% is the price for that bundle of services. Whether that's a fair price is debatable, but the personal wealth of the CEO is a distraction from that debate.