Key Takeaways:
Rob Arnott, founding chairman of Research Affiliates, published a Wall Street Journal op-ed July 29 arguing that successful entrepreneurs deserve gratitude, not envy, for creating products that improve lives.
Rob Arnott, founding chairman of Research Affiliates, published a Wall Street Journal op-ed July 29 arguing that capitalism's most successful figures — from Bill Gates to Sam Altman — deserve gratitude rather than resentment for building products that benefit billions.
"Most success is earned by improving an ever-changing world," Arnott wrote. "Instead of resenting success, can't we be grateful when achievement is fairly earned?"
Arnott recounted a taxi driver in Moline, Illinois, nearly three decades ago who thanked him for his success, explaining that successful people create paying customers and products that make the world better. Arnott extended that gratitude to 10 technology billionaires, including Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang and Sam Altman, arguing their companies created superior products for millions of happy customers.
The op-ed arrives as U.S. political discourse increasingly targets corporate profits and billionaire wealth. Arnott's argument frames economic success as a positive-sum game where innovation benefits consumers through lower prices and better products — a view he said is rooted in "a politics of gratitude" rather than envy.
Arnott drew a distinction between wealth earned through crime or corruption and wealth created by building products people value more than their price. "J.K. Rowling is one of Europe's wealthiest women because millions of families value her stories more than the cost of her books," he wrote. "Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Elon Musk created superior products for millions of happy customers. Otherwise, they wouldn't be centibillionaires."
The piece specifically thanked Gates, Michael Dell and Jobs for putting computers and smartphones into billions of hands; Larry Page and Sergey Brin for making human knowledge freely accessible; Zuckerberg for enabling global social interaction; Ken Griffin for creating efficient capital markets; and Huang, Altman and Dario Amodei for launching the artificial-intelligence revolution, which Arnott said "will change our world beyond recognition — almost certainly for the better."
A Framework of Gratitude
Arnott contrasted what he called "the politics of envy" with his driver's "politics of gratitude" — a framework that rejects zero-sum thinking about wealth. The driver's insight, Arnott said, was not personal gratitude toward him but a broader rejection of resentment toward those who succeed.
"In a healthy capitalist system with strong rule of law and a light regulatory burden, success means producing something people value more than its price and are therefore happy to buy," Arnott wrote. The op-ed reflects a long-running debate in asset management about the social utility of wealth creation and whether markets distribute gains broadly enough to sustain public support.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
