&gt; What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone?<p>I agree with the fundamental dogma that startups are the best way we know to create good technology, which in turn benefits everyone.  ie. the big wealth creators are discovering new resources and creating better technology.  ( The big new resources are in space, or perhaps deep sea, so your back to startups to get there.)<p>Extrapolating, it seems reasonable that within 15 years the cost of many manufactured items will fall dramatically and quality will go up - when 3D printing can print electronics and plastics intermingled together at good resolution, that will mean all our vacuum cleaners &#x2F; iphones &#x2F; laptops &#x2F; TVs &#x2F; cars &#x2F; bikes &#x2F; shoes are printed whole instead of assembling them from parts.<p>Aside from consumer goods, we still all need high quality and cheap solutions for : education, energy, transport and housing.<p>Cheap, high quality [customisable!] housing might actually be solved by 3D printing also [ but maybe you&#x27;ll just end up paying more for rights to the land plot or sky space to host your dream pad ? ]<p>Its worth mentioning the obvious, that Startups don&#x27;t exist in a vacuum, they need the backdrop of founders and staff who are highly educated [ not to mention a functioning economy with capital, infrastructure, internet ]<p>Personally, if someone gave me a basic income and a project budget, I would spend it on establishing Math Circles for students aged 10 to 15.  ( My ideal version of math circles involves some hands-on programming in javascript, coupled with the typical tricky math problems to solve - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quantblog.wordpress.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;14&#x2F;mathcircle-with-code" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quantblog.wordpress.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;14&#x2F;mathcircle-with-c...</a> ).  Id also like to see how we could scale out Math Circles by delivering them online.<p>Education via this Math Circle format is a very long term technology investment, but has a high bang for buck in terms of upside for the planet and our species.  As a parent it seems clear to me, we cant wait around for the government or established institutions to innovate in education - it has to be done in parallel and outside of the constraints of a formal bureaucracy.<p>Think of each student as a startup you&#x27;re funding - in that long tail there might be one or two Adas, Edisons, Einsteins or Mirzakhanis wherein almost all future &#x27;value&#x27; lies.. but we&#x27;re also making a wider pyramid of culture, diffusing out into the general milieu of artists, nurses, marketers, designers a slightly higher level of facility and intuition in math and science.