Bill Gates was the world's richest man every year from 1995 through 2007. Before that, I had read a biography about Bill Gates where he discussed his early vision for Microsoft. It turns out that he has repeated that vision often and it can be referenced from sources other than that biography.
The revolutionary concept of software as an amazing tool was the whole idea that Paul Allen and I built our company around. When Microsoft got started in 1975, our dream was a computer on every desk and in every home.
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Of course, the idea was that there would be a computer on every desk and in every home running Microsoft software with frequent upgrades whereby Gates would receive ongoing payments from every desk and every home in America. I think that mindset was inherent in Bill Gates and never left him.
Perhaps the biography I read (published in 1992) was the first time that vision was put in front of the public, but it was probably before that. In any case, though, I think that the biography was the first time the vision really became mainstream knowledge. After that, every year that Bill Gates was named the richest person in the world, people were reminded of Bill Gates and how he did it. While it would have escaped the notice of most people, it did not escape the notice of those so inclined to want to make a lot of money. Also, it didn't escape the notice of that subset of people that Microsoft and Gates got to where they got not by primarily focusing on making great software but by focusing on how to be the only game in town when it came to software, which came down to the business practices that Bill Gates used.
So between circa 1993 and 2007 a lot of effort was devoted to studying how Bill Gates made it and tailoring ideas to that. As well, Gates latched onto ideas that were consistent with his vision for Microsoft. Instead of putting a computer on every desk and in every home with software as an amazing tool which requires users to pay for the original software and also frequent upgrades, why not a virus in every business and every home which requires the government to pay for an original vaccine and also frequent boosters? Could it be possible that this was a solution looking for multiple problems? Could it be possible that the primary focus was not on finding great solutions but by focusing on how to be the only game in town when it came to a solution? It seems so to me.
Besides the area of vaccines, this business model has been put into practice in numerous ways, mostly by big tech firms, for example the FAANGS - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.