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By and large this country is very lucky with the billionaires it continues to produce: Bezos, Cuba, Buffet, Gates, Paul Allen, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Musk, etc, al

By and large this country is very lucky with the billionaires it continues to produce: Bezos, Cuba, Buffet, Gates, Paul Allen, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Musk, etc, all seem to be incredible people who are committed to do good. I think it has something to do with the fact that these people are self-made and for the most part made their billions without having to sell their souls to the devil.

chipgap98 6y ago
I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil
- lostapathy 6y ago
  And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - sky_rw 6y ago
    Many of us still are
- zarkov99 6y ago
  I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.
  - meowface 6y ago
    One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.
  - stretchcat 6y ago
    Doesn't Zuckerberg still have a controlling interest in Facebook? Seems to me, that makes him more culpable than most of the rest.
  - lancesells 6y ago
    I'm just looking at what Wikipedia says Zuckerberg is worth but it's $69B. Looking at what Forbes said his charity (which does not mean 100% his money) they donated $410 million in 2018. That's ~0.006% of his wealth meaning it's not even giving away a penny out of $100. It's close to half a penny out of $100. I understand net worth of $69B is on paper but none of these guys are philanthropic.
    - oh_sigh 6y ago
      You're off by a factor of 100.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - holbrad 6y ago
      Are you sure it's not 0.594% of his networth as opposed to 0.0006?
    - lancesells 6y ago
      Edit: My math was off. Thanks to those correcting me.
- desireco42 6y ago
  I would separate here, Bezos is evil because he is just amassing wealth, avoids taxes and pretty much is focused only on himself. Contrast that with Cuban who is also amassing wealth, but also is trying to do what is good for the community.
  - meowface 6y ago
    Bezos has donated a lot to charity, including $10 billion to fight climate change and $100 million to food banks in 2020. Sure, he could donate more, but % wise that's probably more than many people reading this have donated in 2020. And I don't want to start a debate over it, but I do believe that the primary intention behind Blue Origin is to benefit humanity. The main issue with Bezos is worker conditions at Amazon, I think.
    - desireco42 6y ago
      These are mostly tax moves, not genuine concern, in my view. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezos-donating-10-billion-barely-dents-his-surging-fortune https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezo...
EForEndeavour 6y ago
I legitimately can't tell if this is satire, particularly the "self-made" part. Bezos' parents loaned him a quarter-million dollars in 1995 [1]. Gates' mother, while on the board of directors of United Way, convinced IBM to invest in MS in 1980 [2]. Zuckerberg's parents sent him to the crazy selective and expensive boarding school Philips Exeter Academy and was privately tutored in comp sci before college [3]. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-parents-to-invest-in-amazon--turning-them-into.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-paren... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-helped-her-son-start-microsoft.html https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-... [3] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-facebook https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-fa...
- saberdancer 6y ago
  It's a long way from quarter of a million to Amazon. How many people get quarter of a million in inheritance or have rich parents? It's silly to call out "self made" just because someone got a loan. Bezos did not inherit billions of dollars, he is a billionaire now. By any metric he is a self made billionaire.
  - 1MoreThing 6y ago
    It's a lot longer from zero (or negative, in you have student loans) to a quarter million if you're working outside the SV/software engineer salary bubble.
    - saberdancer 6y ago
      No complaint here. I was referring to calling out Bezos for not being "self made".
  - tshaddox 6y ago
    The point isn't that it wasn't hard work to grow from $250,000 to billions. The point is that there's a big difference between saying "anyone who works hard can build a company like Amazon" and "anyone who works hard and got $250,000 from their parents can build a company like Amazon."
SeanLuke 6y ago
> all seem to be incredible people who are committed to do good Gates and Zuckerberg were far from models of piety in how they came into their fortune.
antman 6y ago
What do you consider most probable: - They are all the greatest people ever - They all can afford to employ the most expensive personal marketing teams ever
rland 6y ago
How many more billionaires than those that you've named has it produced? What about Exxon, AT&T, Aetna, AIG, Goldman, DuPont Chemical, Lockheed, McKinsey? There's a pretty obvious bias there: the ones you name do good because you named the ones who do good. (which, really, you could examine: how much of that perception is PR?) We're not lucky to have billionaires. We'd be just as well if there were none at all.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- zarkov99 6y ago
  The 100 million children alive today because of the work of the Gates foundation would not though.

chipgap98 6y ago

I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil

lostapathy 6y ago
And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sky_rw 6y ago
  Many of us still are
zarkov99 6y ago
I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.
- meowface 6y ago
  One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.
- stretchcat 6y ago
  Doesn't Zuckerberg still have a controlling interest in Facebook? Seems to me, that makes him more culpable than most of the rest.
- lancesells 6y ago
  I'm just looking at what Wikipedia says Zuckerberg is worth but it's $69B. Looking at what Forbes said his charity (which does not mean 100% his money) they donated $410 million in 2018. That's ~0.006% of his wealth meaning it's not even giving away a penny out of $100. It's close to half a penny out of $100. I understand net worth of $69B is on paper but none of these guys are philanthropic.
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    You're off by a factor of 100.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - holbrad 6y ago
    Are you sure it's not 0.594% of his networth as opposed to 0.0006?
  - lancesells 6y ago
    Edit: My math was off. Thanks to those correcting me.
desireco42 6y ago
I would separate here, Bezos is evil because he is just amassing wealth, avoids taxes and pretty much is focused only on himself. Contrast that with Cuban who is also amassing wealth, but also is trying to do what is good for the community.
- meowface 6y ago
  Bezos has donated a lot to charity, including $10 billion to fight climate change and $100 million to food banks in 2020. Sure, he could donate more, but % wise that's probably more than many people reading this have donated in 2020. And I don't want to start a debate over it, but I do believe that the primary intention behind Blue Origin is to benefit humanity. The main issue with Bezos is worker conditions at Amazon, I think.
  - desireco42 6y ago
    These are mostly tax moves, not genuine concern, in my view. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezos-donating-10-billion-barely-dents-his-surging-fortune https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezo...

EForEndeavour 6y ago

I legitimately can't tell if this is satire, particularly the "self-made" part. Bezos' parents loaned him a quarter-million dollars in 1995 [1]. Gates' mother, while on the board of directors of United Way, convinced IBM to invest in MS in 1980 [2]. Zuckerberg's parents sent him to the crazy selective and expensive boarding school Philips Exeter Academy and was privately tutored in comp sci before college [3]. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-parents-to-invest-in-amazon--turning-them-into.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-paren... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-helped-her-son-start-microsoft.html https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-... [3] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-facebook https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-fa...

saberdancer 6y ago
It's a long way from quarter of a million to Amazon. How many people get quarter of a million in inheritance or have rich parents? It's silly to call out "self made" just because someone got a loan. Bezos did not inherit billions of dollars, he is a billionaire now. By any metric he is a self made billionaire.
- 1MoreThing 6y ago
  It's a lot longer from zero (or negative, in you have student loans) to a quarter million if you're working outside the SV/software engineer salary bubble.
  - saberdancer 6y ago
    No complaint here. I was referring to calling out Bezos for not being "self made".
- tshaddox 6y ago
  The point isn't that it wasn't hard work to grow from $250,000 to billions. The point is that there's a big difference between saying "anyone who works hard can build a company like Amazon" and "anyone who works hard and got $250,000 from their parents can build a company like Amazon."

SeanLuke 6y ago

> all seem to be incredible people who are committed to do good Gates and Zuckerberg were far from models of piety in how they came into their fortune.

antman 6y ago

What do you consider most probable: - They are all the greatest people ever - They all can afford to employ the most expensive personal marketing teams ever

rland 6y ago

How many more billionaires than those that you've named has it produced? What about Exxon, AT&T, Aetna, AIG, Goldman, DuPont Chemical, Lockheed, McKinsey? There's a pretty obvious bias there: the ones you name do good because you named the ones who do good. (which, really, you could examine: how much of that perception is PR?) We're not lucky to have billionaires. We'd be just as well if there were none at all.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
zarkov99 6y ago
The 100 million children alive today because of the work of the Gates foundation would not though.