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That's cherry picking the arguably worst examples in capitalism and claiming that they represent the whole. We have Gates, Buffett, Musk, Carnegie and many othe
by BadassFractal 9y ago
That's cherry picking the arguably worst examples in capitalism and claiming that they represent the whole. We have Gates, Buffett, Musk, Carnegie and many others who are/were making a huge difference either with their businesses or the wealth that those businesses earned them. You can't have the good without the bad. You cannot learn about the great rulers of history without also learning about the genocidal maniacs.
I know it's sexy for modern day champagne socialists to rant about this on /r/LateStageCapitalism and co. and signal through communism LARPing. I'm however confident the HN crowd is a little more educated than that.
- joering2 9y agoNothing stops you from learning about Gates, Buffett, Musk or Carnegie, my point is there should be time for that, not at the age when your brain is not yet 100% wired and things you learn about Buffet for example [1] could make you assume that "this is just the way to be successful in business", because, well - your brain doesn't know better yet. https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/03/17024/warren-buffetts-mobile-home-empire-preys-poor https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/03/17024/warren-buff...
- paulryanrogers 9y agoMaybe not Carnegie who built libraries after he made it big, but busted unions and did shady stuff to get rich in the first place.
- BadassFractal 9y agoGates was a business asshole too, from my understanding. I think you can find warts about any of the greats if you dig deep enough. Just like you can find things to dislike about authors, artists, musicians etc. I don't know if that should discredit what they accomplish and give back altogether, that's an interesting conversation.