alt Hacker NewsI disagree with the sentiment. Who is made worse off, who is made poorer because he held Microsoft shares? OP describes it as a "policy failure"... what kind of social wrong does a "policy" which would have forced him to sell his shares in 2015 correct?
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Others have given some answer to who was made poorer by Ballmer holding Microsoft shares, but I'd argue that this is the wrong question. Instead of looking at a specific individual, we should look at systems.
A system that allows this kind of extreme wealth accumulation is quite fundamentally at odds with democracy because extreme wealth can be and is in practice used to influence politics in a way that undermines democracy.
Some people might not care about that, but if your goal is improving the outcomes of the largest number of people, then pretty much everything else is secondary to having a functioning democracy.
If you’re asking with genuine curiosity: whatever venture was not invested in because it went to buying Tech Titan stocks instead.
Concentrated wealth doesn’t circulate well, which leads to inflation.
I thought we all had some economic chops on this forum?