893
Yo, Elon
(sopuli.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
893 points (96.9% liked)
Funny
6107 readers
989 users here now
General rules:
- Be kind.
- All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
- Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
- No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
- Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Are there any billionaires who actively use their wealth for good? I only know about 2 and even those idk if I should count. One was some guy that gave all his billions to charity and kept for himself only one million. Other is bezos's ex wife, as far as I know she periodically sends very large sums of money to charity.
Idk I feel like writing a check for charity is not good enough, they could be so much more active and done lot more if they idk... build hospital, shool.... cheap housing etc.
I'm of the "there are no ethical billionaires" school of thought. And veeeery often the charities they do give to are some sort of tax evasion schemes that employ eg. family members and that only actually use a tiny percentage of the "donated" funds for actual charity
An individual giving money to good causes will always be limited by the fact that it is based on the whims/biases of that individual. So, it is possible to see that some billionaires like Bill Gates and (dare I say it..) J K Rowling give substantial amounts to charities - we can also see that they are donating to personal pet causes. Society already has a way for rich people to give to a structured system that (attempts to) give(s) out the money to a wide variety of causes - its called tax and the system is government! If these people who society has allowed to become so wealthy just paid taxes and supported a proper, fair government then they wouldn't need charities... but then they wouldn't get to name buildings after themselves.
Taxes typically go to the country you pay the taxes in though, and the poor in America, for example, are probably in a far better position than, say, sub Saharan Africa.
Governments are location based, but also give huge amounts in foreign aid - especially rich countries. They are also better placed to give it fairly than individuals. Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AtkAHkKEc
George Clooney is worth 450 million and has his satellite project. Any possible "ethical billionaire" probably lives a private life or has diverted enough of their wealth to preclude themselves from being a billionaire.
Bill Gates has given huge amounts to charity, as in a massive chunk of his net worth, he eventually plans to give away the vast majority of it.
Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AtkAHkKEc
Taylor Swift
The 2006 secret santa guy who handed-out large sums of cash to people who were shopping in thrift secondhand stores. Billionaire or millionaire? Wiki says, "Stewart made his fortune through cable television and long-distance calling". Plus I recall a vague memory from the news where he said, "I've been in Forbes Top 100 everything far longer that I can remember". So that's something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Stewart_%28philanthropist%29