These people are our future

[CoccoBill]

You mean what would he do if he were starving?

You said the rich man would have no motivation to work if some of his wealth is spread around. You gave this as if it would be a legit possibility that he stop working, please explain what he would, in your opinion, do after doing that.

The point of the island is to break it down into meaningful numbers. Let's imagine that the island has been running for 50 years and the rich guy has stored 500 wheels/bottles of everything, it doesn't change the basic ideas.

He is still accumulating wealth through work and applied knowledge and intelligence, and taxation would encourage him to stop making cheese even more if he could afford to sit on his ass for the next 30 years eating cheese and wine and trading for some fish. Taxing him will slow down his desire to work the richer he gets, and slow down his desires to trade the shit he invents if every trade is taxed.

We don't want him to slow down -- we want him to continue working hard to invent Tylenol and Swiss cheese, and learn how to make whiskey through experimentation (research). We want new islanders to see what they can have through hard work.

The problem is that you're only looking at this through the rich guy's perspective. You picture you're that guy, right? You want to make sure that when you're reaching for you American Dream, there's nothing in your way to stop you. The others who don't succeed don't have the capacity and willpower to achieve your goals, hence they clearly don't deserve it. If someone with an innate disability gets left behind in the process, that's acceptable losses, since it is the rich guy who is the most important.

In a market economy, the larger an investment is, the higher its rate of return. This is due to both economies of scale and the increased range of investment opportunities. In addition to these economic forces, those who control greater amounts of capital within a society are able to participate more directly in shaping government policy, often in ways that further maximize their wealth. Due to both economic and political realities within a market economy, it is a natural process for the wealthiest individuals and firms in a society to become disproportionately wealthier over time. In order to prevent the political instability resulting from the natural stratification of the populace into an ever smaller and wealthier aristocracy or moneyed class, and an ever larger working class, all free market democracies engage in progressive taxation and programs to enhance economic opportunity for the lower and middle classes.

The rich guy's continuing work is getting less and less beneficial for the society, no one has anything he wants and even with slavery, sexual favors etc. only so much of the rich man's wealth ends up generating any common benefits. What is there to stop the rich buy from abusing and establishing tyranny over all the others? The armless persons who can't support themselves will have no chance but to either die or take the food from the others, the latter of which is probably not in the interests of neither the rich nor the middle class, which is why making sure he has enough might be in their self-interests.