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"Does he have a greater moral directive to do so than us because he has accumulated a great fortune?" Yup!

• stuart78 8y ago
  I'd be interested in the next few sentences to go deeper on why. Why should we delegate the prioritization of societal values to the wealthy? what about wealth-accumulation makes them better suited to choosing how we should solve problems for our society. And why are you and I not equally responsible for influencing the direction of things within our means?
  • hendi_ 8y ago
    We are. But look at the very last words you've used: "within our means" Don't you think with a bank account some orders of magnitude larger than mine, Bezos' means are larger than mine?
  • edavison1 8y ago
    I wouldn't say that Bezos has an obligation to maximize well-being any greater than ours; but as the other comment pointed out, he is uniquely placed to have a much larger impact on large-scale problems. You're absolutely right when you imply that he is no better suited than anyone else to become an authority on those problems. And I think we are morally responsible for influencing problems within our means. Bezos can fund public libraries and provide clean drinking water, whereas I can comment on HN with a rudimentary understanding of meta-ethics :)