How many employees does Facebook have, and how are they benefiting the economy. Just 2 billionaires and a few?

[Bored Goblin]

I am pretty sure there are several thousand programmers working on Facebook and all the applications in it. And why do you care - they are not taking your money, and they are not preventing you from earning money, unless you are a geek working for MySpace or a traditional advertising company. But that's just one "parasite" replacing the other, and in fact internet advertising wastes a lot less of society's resources and time than billboards, newspaper or TV ads.

On top of that, a small upstart has a real chance at making a successful application and getting a share of advertising profits; something that would not be likely to happen with traditional advertizing.

The only problem you seem to have with them is that they are rich, and you are not. This is called envy. And the way to deal with it is to find a way to become rich yourself, not try to destroy what others have achieved.

PS Facebook does provide a real service - it keeps you in touch with people, it is used to coordinate all sorts of activities, including political protests in places where parties are banned. It is even a source of grass-root news. In other words, it takes the power out of the hands of centralized traditional media, and gives it back to regular people. Ofc, you do not see any of that if all you do on Facebook is gossip and Farmville.

Finally, in a market economy, nobody has the authority to tell what is a real & useful service and what is a waste of resources. I.e. government cannot do that, and neither can you. The only measure is market demand - if people want it and are willing to pay for it, it is a good thing.
If you feel people want the wrong thing, you have taken the first step towards thought control.

PPS If you want to do mindless manual work and have a middle-class lifestyle, move to Mexico.