The Motivation of Minds.

It has been argued, from both sides of the political aisle, that escalating taxes on the rich serves as a disincentive to true innovation. The fact is, for the great innovators, money rarely played a role, and was, in many respects, simply a welcome by-product.

Consider Bill Gates. Certainly he spent an enormous amount of time and effort in creating the vision he had of a personal computer system available to all. It is hard for anyone to begrudge his success; it is truly the American dream. He possessed the intellect and will power to make something happen, and was somewhat fortunate that it was at the exact time that what he could provide the world was hungry for. For all his effort, the recent issue of Forbes puts his net worth at 40 billion, and that is down 18 billion from the year before. Certainly worthy of every accolade he receives.

But would Mr. Gates have worked less hard if he stood to gain only, say, 20 billion? Would he have taken more vacations, or done less research if he were only to make 10 billion? What if it was only 1 billion?

The great innovators are passionate about a concept or belief. They are willing to dedicate their lives to it, the great majority never reaching even a fraction of what Bill Gates has achieved.

To lower the scale a bit, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (an idea that may have been stolen and resulted in a 65 million dollar settlement), was worth 1.5 billion in 2008, and as a result of the recession, saw that number drop to under 1 billion in 2009. When someone is worth that type of money, what difference does ½ billion make? If he so desires, he could never spend a day working again in his lifetime, never mind his children’s and grandchildren’s lifetimes. The original goal was not to become insanely rich, but simply develop a platform for college students to communicate. Zuckerberg and his fellow students were not motivated by money, but simply excited by something new, a great innovation.

Making it more difficult to accumulate wealth, and thus easier for the general public to maintain a basic standard of living, will greatly increase the “innovation pool.” If we were to institute a rising tax scale that increased with income, and then, dare I say it, “re-distribute wealth” to the lower classes, the amount of great thinkers that would have the additional time and resources to develop these great ideas would increase. The creator of the next Facebook very well might be a middle aged man struggling with 2 jobs to provide healthcare for his family that will never see the time necessary to see his ideas reach fruition. And this has not gone unnoticed by those ready to take advantage of the situation. Today we are flooded with predatory “invention” companies charging fees to “patent” the ideas of those without the resources to make the most of them.

Truly great innovation is not motivated by the desire to get rich. In fact, most great minds never do achieve great wealth, despite the corporations they are working for seeing significant gains off their efforts. Great innovation is inspired by great curiosity, the desire of thinkers to explore the possibilities of building on the research of those before them. For insane amounts of wealth to end up in the hands of so few stifles the real possibilities that do exist, yet are hidden beneath the enormous cost of even a basic living.