Re: Does it do that?

[mike3]

On May 21, 2:53 pm, "Alfred M. Szmidt" <a...@gnu.org> wrote:
>    >    What if you want to make a huge amount of money to use for _good_,
>    >    world-benefitting purposes?
>    >
>    > What if I enslave millions of people so I can have them work on
>    > solving the issues of poverty, our energy needs, polution?  The
>    > question is meaningless since the `what if' bit is to big.
>
>    So then how do you solve said issues?
>
> If I knew how, they I would have solved it.  
>

I was not asking for specifics on how to do it, but rather if it is
*possible* to do it in what you consider a "morally acceptable"
way.

>    But is there any way to make said money *without* software AND with
>    a LOW starting capital? I mean, I can't just go off and start a car
>    company unless I'm pretty darned wealthy to start with. I'd need
>    manufacturing plants, etc.
>
> When Ford started building cars, there were no manufacturing plants.
> People still build cars by hand as well.
>

But you can't make too many by hand, although I suppose if you
make enough and get enough people employed you could make
the type of money needed to get a bigger facility and a more
automated one. But it's the _starting capital_ that's the rub. If
your car business costs $250,000 to _start_ then you need that
$250,000 first -- period! But that's a far cry from billions of
dollars, so I suppose you could start a "free software" based
business first, like those you mentioned, and use that to get the
starting capital to start the more expensive businesses.

>    Can I go off and start my own renewable energy company even though
>    I have nowhere near the cash to build even the smallest of
>    manufacturing plants?
>
> You have to start somewhere.

But could a free software business provide enough money to
start those other businesses?

And like it or not, you do need money to do things in this world.
Maybe you can't solve everything with just money, but if you
have no money or very little money, you are in a much worse
position to do things than if you have more money.