Rich Getting Richer

Ultimately, the Rich getting Richer is pretty much the norm in the world.  Wealthy people have the resources to both invest and time and influence.  If I need support to win an election, I may get a lot of small donations, but a few really big ones is so much easier.

Of course you can also use your own wealth if you are so inclined pretty much assured that it will pay off in the long or not so long run.  Very few politicians end up poor, at least none I ever hear of.  Its pretty easy to use influence to impact your future and whether anything is wrong with that certainly depends on your outlook.

This is nothing new and the real trickle down theory goes way back to ancient times.  The ones who get closest tend to do the best and you see rich and powerful people surrounded by sycophants hoping to get some of the wealth and power.

Its so ingrained into our nature that you can see that behavior in anthropological studies where the best hunters got to dole out the kills in return for favors.  Of course these were generally men and the women traded in a different commodity.

It should be noted that there was a time in this country where many big companies were privately held.  In those cases of course the wealthy owners might have made decisions based on his or her particular preferences.  There is a story about Milton Hershey in which he rejected a chance to buy a machine that would have replaced 500 workers because he didn't want the workers to lose their jobs. That sort of decision is not possible in a publicly held corporation where you have to deal with fiduciary responsibilities to your stockholders.

Now new jobs and industries do get created, generally as small businesses, which sometimes grow into significant enterprises.  The vast majority of these small business either fail or stay small, but a few do succeed.

However, to think that the industries that once existed are magically going to reappear ignores reality and logic.  Why would a wealthy person build a 1950s style factory?

The two biggest trends in manufacturing has been automation and outsourcing.  Both of these result is fewer jobs since the outsourcing leads to efficient production of parts and the automation replaces workers.

In fact the supply chain uses their own automation further reducing jobs.

Giving wealthy people more money will result in investment, just not very many jobs, at least not the old manufacturing ones.