Imagine being naive enough to actually believe this. What billionaires actually do is set up NGOs they call charities that they control as a way to dodge taxes.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2022
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That and financing political entities so that they stay in power (just see Patagonia) for serving their interests
Point taken, billionaires don't get that much money through altruism.
But weak counterpoint: if I woke up tomorrow with all of Jezos' wealth, I'd want to use it to make others' lives better, and to do so I'd need 1. People who understand me and know how I'd want to invest, because a single person doing their own finances cannot spend money fast enough to get rid of billions in a lifetime, and 2. An organization that understands my goals and can work towards that. Sure, there are probably some type of money manager jobs that essentially give money away already, and I could hire the ones who mostly agree with my values to give to charities that mostly agree with my values, or I could just set up my own organization of investors and charity workers to use my newfound money in the exact way I want.
The reality is that these people aren't hoarding wealth because they need it. You have to think about it as a mental disorder. A rational person wouldn't accumulate so much wealth because, as you point out, there is no way to spend this wealth. There's also a selection process at work here. Capitalism selects for psychopathic behavior. Bezos built his empire on ruthless exploitation of millions of people toiling in inhumane conditions at Amazon. If Bezos was capable of any sort of empathy towards others then he wouldn't be running a slave empire in the first place.
I don't know if that is the case. I kind of dislike the "mental" explanation for the actions of billionares. Yeah they are cruel, but I doubt Bezzos even sees anything wrong with his actions. Or if he even sees his actions at all. He lives in a fantasy land detached from reality thanks to his huge cushion of wealth. He probably genuinely believes in the "invisible hand" and "free market". Yeah he constantly sees headlines calling him out but that doesn't mean he understands what they are saying.
That's the problem with capitalism, the separation of capital from it's labor so that the capital becomes blind to it's own actions. It's why capitalism creates crisis, it cannot see the actions of wealth hoarding, abusing workers, and crushing competitors.
These things aren't mutually exclusive. I completely agree that billionaires live in a bubble where they're completely detached from the suffering they cause. However, where the mental aspect comes in is in pursuit of wealth for the sake of wealth. And there is a selection process in play as well. Since the amount of wealth one can hoard is the sole fitness function, it selects for behaviors that are most efficient at achieving this. People who are willing to step on others, to lie, cheat, steal, and do any sorts of immoral actions are rewarded with success. People who have moral qualms end up being outcompeted by those who don't.
I completely agree with you that it is a systemic problem within capitalism, and the focus should be on moving away from capitalism towards a system that rewards cooperative behaviors where individual self interest aligns with the interest of the majority.
A rational person wouldn’t accumulate so much wealth because, as you point out, there is no way to spend this wealth.
Thing is, most billionaires like Bezos, Musk, or Gates tend to have very different finances than other classes of people. What they own is pieces of a company or companies, as opposed to a house, bank account, or being poor as fuck. Owning that means owning shares in the company, not having liquidity that they can just go throw around. So it's not really a matter of whether they have more than they can use in a lifetime. It's a matter of having enough to retain control over generally how the company is run.
I've heard this argument before, and it's patently false. These people clearly do have a ton of liquidity that they spend on their incredibly lavish lifestyles. You could make the argument that their valuation is inflated because financial wealth doesn't directly translate into actual wealth, but these people own tons of physical property. For example, Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in US.
Oh shit he's even mega kulak in addition to all rest of crap.
Most people don't realize just how despicable Gates is. He has one of the best PR teams out there.
Is Charity his newest stripper/love interest?
Yeah right
This was an informative video about this "donate to charity" tactic: https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I
My buddy who is a crazy outdoor mountain man, or was at the time, came down off the mountain and brought a bunch of his Patagonia shit into their store in reno where they will repair/replace your damaged clothes for free (which is admittedly pretty cool, ive done this myself a couple times). Anyway, he's got a huge scraggly beard and is basically the spitting image of a hermit rockclimber and the lady there told him they wouldn't repair his clothing because she thought hewas just a homeless person who went around gathering Patagonia shit to have them repair it so he could resell it.
He was just like what? the fuck? What difference does it make even if that was the case. This lady just thinks shes better than him and refuses to take any of his garments and sleeping bag. Needless to say he's never buying Patagonia gear again.
I wonder if they can smell the lubricant oil being used to ready up the guillotines
[...]he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change
I'll simply assume that the Earth is too cold for Bezos and he's trying to make it warmer. I mean, why else would he release a couple of hundred tonnes of CO~2~ into the atmosphere with his rocket joyride?
If one were to really put that money to use it would go to the people ruthlessly exploited to create that wealth, or better yet to try to end the exploitative system, but of course he can’t do that, he’s going to launder his money through “non-profits” and try to virtue signaling some sort of altruism.
Bill Gates has been getting richer every year since he decided to do the same.
Can't believe people are naive enough to fall for these PR campaigns.
For people wondering how wealthy Jeff is: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
And for the cynical, Bill Gates - As much as he hurt Linux and FOSS - has done a tremendous amount of help in the world through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation is an tax evasion trick, an intellectual property rights lobby, and has been an extremely harmful actor in over-oppressed countries.
Yeah he and his foundation are a scourge even considering the positive things it does.
This is what the Gates foundation actually doing:
You know all this and still fell for their strategy/propaganda. Imagine the totally brainwashed mass then.