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> Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? No. Changing doesn't remove your past

> Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? No. Changing doesn't remove your past sins and helping one person doesn't balance your hurting another. To believe so would mean saving a life makes up for taking another life, obviously it doesn't.

veb 12y ago
Great point, didn't think of it like that.
derekp7 12y ago
Reminds me of a parable in I think an old Hardy Boys book. First, pound a bunch of nails in a board. Now remove the nails. Now remove the holes.
dusklight 12y ago
Does that mean he should stop and go back to being a barracuda? It's certainly not fair to make the comparison of saving one life in exchange for taking another. A better comparison would be saving many (millions?) of poor, non-white lives in exchange for stealing money from privileged white men (majority of people in the software industry during his era).
- scholia 12y ago
  Gates helped make a lot of your "privileged white men" rich by providing a market for compatible software and hardware. He also helped a lot of Asians become rich as well. In the 1980s, Apple went round Hong Kong, Taiwan and China suing companies for making knockoffs of the Apple II (ie better, faster, more reliable and much cheaper versions of the Apple II). Then along came the PC industry, which welcomed them -- and their innovations -- with open arms. How do you balance a handful of self-righteous American programmers against the wealth and the millions of jobs generated by Acer, Asus, MSI, Hon Hai, Wistron, Pegatron, Quanta, Compal, Inventec, etc?
- gnaritas 12y ago
  > Does that mean he should stop and go back to being a barracuda? Of course not. > It's certainly not fair to make the comparison of saving one life in exchange for taking another. It's exactly the right example because it makes the moral choice clear and that same choice applies to the lesser scenario. > A better comparison would be We don't need a better comparison, it's already been made clear that you can't make up for sins against one by helping another.

veb 12y ago

Great point, didn't think of it like that.

derekp7 12y ago

Reminds me of a parable in I think an old Hardy Boys book. First, pound a bunch of nails in a board. Now remove the nails. Now remove the holes.

dusklight 12y ago

Does that mean he should stop and go back to being a barracuda? It's certainly not fair to make the comparison of saving one life in exchange for taking another. A better comparison would be saving many (millions?) of poor, non-white lives in exchange for stealing money from privileged white men (majority of people in the software industry during his era).

scholia 12y ago
Gates helped make a lot of your "privileged white men" rich by providing a market for compatible software and hardware. He also helped a lot of Asians become rich as well. In the 1980s, Apple went round Hong Kong, Taiwan and China suing companies for making knockoffs of the Apple II (ie better, faster, more reliable and much cheaper versions of the Apple II). Then along came the PC industry, which welcomed them -- and their innovations -- with open arms. How do you balance a handful of self-righteous American programmers against the wealth and the millions of jobs generated by Acer, Asus, MSI, Hon Hai, Wistron, Pegatron, Quanta, Compal, Inventec, etc?
gnaritas 12y ago
> Does that mean he should stop and go back to being a barracuda? Of course not. > It's certainly not fair to make the comparison of saving one life in exchange for taking another. It's exactly the right example because it makes the moral choice clear and that same choice applies to the lesser scenario. > A better comparison would be We don't need a better comparison, it's already been made clear that you can't make up for sins against one by helping another.