The term denotes how commonwealth—tax-supported resources such as public education, financial and legal infrastructure, etc.—is translated into private or corporate profit.
[2] The concept of compound empowerment stresses the degree to which the acquisition of great private wealth depends upon common structures.
For example, while a wealthy individual such as Bill Gates might owe his status as the world's richest man largely to his intelligence and innovation, his ability to earn and maintain his fortune was and is compounded by public resources held in common.
According to theorists such as George Lakoff, the prominent cognitive linguist and founder of the non-partisan think tank the Rockridge Institute, Bill Gates "built his company with many employees educated in public schools and universities.
[4][5] Compound empowerment has been evoked to justify progressive taxation and other policies which stress the fundamental fairness of taxing wealthy individuals and corporations in a manner commensurate with their earnings.