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> To play devil’s advocate, suppose we have a hypothetical billionaire that never spends any of their money on luxury or excess but rather devotes most of their

> To play devil’s advocate, suppose we have a hypothetical billionaire that never spends any of their money on luxury or excess but rather devotes most of their time to figuring out how to use their wealth in a way that extracts maximum humanitarian value from it. You could argue that what constitutes “humanitarian value” is totally subjective and that decisions concerning such a large amount of money shouldn’t be left to one person. But on the flip side, would you say that governments actually succeed at representing the average person’s desire for utilizing tax revenue in a way that optimally benefits society? Do they accomplish this efficiently? This sounds like Bill Gates. He's chosen humanitarian endeavours that he wants to focus on. I believe its good to have someone who can deploy significant capital on multi-decade projects. Bill Gates doesn't seem like the person who will give up eradicating polio just because he didn't get it done in a term. However, on the flip side you have Elon Musk buying an influential social media platform...

Xcelerate 3y ago
> This sounds like Bill Gates. He's chosen humanitarian endeavours that he wants to focus on. I believe its good to have someone who can deploy significant capital on multi-decade projects. We could consider the counterfactual situation. If this money went to the U.S. government instead of Bill Gates, would it have accomplished more for humanity than from his efforts as an individual? And to your point, even if this is the case for one billionaire, how does the outcome change if you aggregate the humanitarian utility of wealth across all billionaires vs the totality of that wealth going to various governments?
- matwood 3y ago
  > If this money went to the U.S. government instead of Bill Gates, would it have accomplished more for humanity than from his efforts as an individual? BillG has ~120B net worth and the US spends ~6.5 trillion/year (in 2022). So it would cover just under 2% of the US yearly budget. Doesn't seem very significant considering that would be a one-time payment.
eecc 3y ago
WEll, Musk hasn't just flunked on Twitter. Each of his other companies would amount to a respectable lifetime achievement in their own.

Xcelerate 3y ago

> This sounds like Bill Gates. He's chosen humanitarian endeavours that he wants to focus on. I believe its good to have someone who can deploy significant capital on multi-decade projects. We could consider the counterfactual situation. If this money went to the U.S. government instead of Bill Gates, would it have accomplished more for humanity than from his efforts as an individual? And to your point, even if this is the case for one billionaire, how does the outcome change if you aggregate the humanitarian utility of wealth across all billionaires vs the totality of that wealth going to various governments?

matwood 3y ago
> If this money went to the U.S. government instead of Bill Gates, would it have accomplished more for humanity than from his efforts as an individual? BillG has ~120B net worth and the US spends ~6.5 trillion/year (in 2022). So it would cover just under 2% of the US yearly budget. Doesn't seem very significant considering that would be a one-time payment.

eecc 3y ago

WEll, Musk hasn't just flunked on Twitter. Each of his other companies would amount to a respectable lifetime achievement in their own.