5 ms·
Why this criticism? Is HIV research not a good enough cause for you? Much better than a 10 billion dollar airport or 15 billion dollar Olympics in my opinion.
by Invictus0 5y ago
Why this criticism? Is HIV research not a good enough cause for you? Much better than a 10 billion dollar airport or 15 billion dollar Olympics in my opinion.
- avianlyric 5y agoThere’s no guarantee that Tim’s going to use his money for “good” causes, we’re entirely dependent on his good will. He may go down the evangelical Christian path and fund a war of sex, abortions, gays, trans and people’s reproductive rights. That’s not even a hypothetical outcome, there’s plenty of millionaires and billionaires (like David Green) already funding that war.
- bzbarsky 5y agoTim funding a war on "gays" would be .... very surprising. But also, there's no guarantee that _anyone_ including the government will use money for "good" causes. Bridges to nowhere, military adventurism, wars on drugs, personal enrichment of politicians and government employees, vanity projects of various sorts, the list of things governments mis-spend on is vast. And of course we don't all agree on the relative merits of different causes.
- avianlyric 5y agoTrue, but at least you can vote a government out of power. Same can’t be said for billionaires.
- bzbarsky 5y agoThe practical distinction is often not there except for things that are so egregious there is a good chance billionaires would be crossing the boundaries of legality for doing them. But yes, government does have a slight edge on billionaires for accountability, I agree.