Current Events > Does a "good billionaire" exist iyo?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/0/3/AAfeZRAAEpuv.jpg

Yes.

If one does theyre not a publicly known figure.

No because I'm not a bilionaire.

"Good billionaire" is an oxymoron

No

Same with a good poor person

what about the teenager whose dad owned rayban or whatever and inherited billions when he died

Maybe someone who wins several lotteries

Ratchetrockon posted...

Maybe someone who wins several lotteries

Lottery winners have to pay taxes, so it's dubious for them to be a billionaire even then.

there can be though most probably aren't. someone inheriting billions of dollars isn't inherently bad.

I haven't thought about it much but off the bat I don't think Bill Gates is a terrible person. Spends a ton on charity and will donate at least half of his money to charity at death. Sure, he could donate 95 percent of it and leave a little for his family but it's better than what most people do. And I don't know that his products hurt or kill people or something. If people make their billions in a shitty way then they are a shitty person.

Right now? None that I know of. But I can think of one or two ways that one could maybe become one. Just as an example -- let's say you make the cure for cancer or something and sell it to the WHO for a cool billion -- I say that would be fine.

ArsGoetia posted...

what about the teenager whose dad owned rayban or whatever and inherited billions when he died

Might be in the short term. Runs the risk of being eroded by the company and business billionaires tend to keep though.

If you dropped a billion dollars into a decent persons bank account they wont just magically reverse all their previous values and turn into a racist, homophobic Qanonist. Usually billionaires are terrible people because thats what it took to get there.

Psychopathy in the workplace is a very real thing. People get to the top by being ruthless.

ArsGoetia posted...

what about the teenager whose dad owned rayban or whatever and inherited billions when he died

They inherited an empire founded on blood

Irony posted...

They inherited an empire founded on blood

Thats not their choice. What matters is what they choose to do afterward.

abab

I wanna say Bill Gates or the CEO of Patagonia but this board will probably find some dirt on them.

While I doubt the rare few entertainment icons to crack into the billionaire's club are saints (Lucas, Spielberg, Oprah, McCartney to name a few), hopefully we can rule them out of being on the level of 'empires built on blood.'

Blue_Target posted...

I wanna say Bill Gates

but this board will probably find some dirt on them.

he's a world class jerk for sure, though that alone doesn't necessarily make him a bad person. however, it's worth looking into why his wife divorced him.

Is Richard Branson a bad one?

Bezos ex wife is a billionaire and she just seems like she wants to give to charity and fuck randos for the lolz. So she may be the exception.

Warren Buffett comes to mind.
I see nothing unethical about making your fortune from stock trades. Though there's a bit more to it with his early career.

Obviously there are 2 implications with "ABAB" position;

1. It's fundamentally unethical to hold that much wealth instead of spending it on the welfare of the people. Anyone with that level of wealth is by-definition not using it for the public good.
2. Profits are just the pocketing the value workers create, there is no such surplus value, only workers being robbed.

Two is just Marxist nonsense and I'm not going to argue it, I believe in property rights.
One I also hand wave away, it's not the individual's obligation to spend their wealth on the public good. That's governments obligation. Often the case, non-government entities (individuals or corporations) use wealth in a more efficient or novel way than the govt. may not have used it for, for example pharmaceutical companies discovering new drugs.

I don't think there is any good billionaires, but some are better than others

If they were good billionaires they wouldn't be billionaires.

If I inherited a billion dollars tomorrow that same day I'd be seeing what I needed to do to feed and house as many people as I possibly can and leaving like 10 million to myself just to ensure myself and people I love can always be financially secure but even that feels obscene.

These people could do that, they don't.

Blue_Target posted...

I wanna say Bill Gates or the CEO of Patagonia but this board will probably find some dirt on them.

Bill Gates made his money by being an exploitative and anti-competetive asshat lmfao

IceCreamOnStero posted...

Bill Gates made his money by being an exploitative and anti-competetive asshat lmfao

The way we look at software now vs 90's is so weird.
The antitrust stuff for bundling IE with Windows...lol times have fucking changed.

Bill Gates, George Soros and Warren Buffet, thats about it

MrBeast might be good.

PaperPiranha posted...

MrBeast might be good.

Mr Beast isn't anywhere close to a billionaire

An ethical person wouldn't have that much money

Only in comic books, and the "good ones" are even questionable there sometimes.

Tony Khan is tolerable

I dont personally know any billionaires so it would be incredibly silly of me to judge them.

TheHoldSteady posted...

Tony Khan is tolerable

Hes not a billionaire, his father is.

To put billionaires into perspective, if you put a billion dollars into a simple savings account earning 1% interest no compounding or anything it would earn 10 million a year in interest.

Now, the question is: if you cant live on 10 million a year, do you deserve to live?

This is also disregarding that the wealthy get far higher than 1% returns on their investments. Hell, I get 4.55 APY on my short term savings in a Wealthfront Cash Account, so if you put a billion in there, that would be 45.5 million a year.

TheHoldSteady posted...

Tony Khan is tolerable

Tony Khan isnt a billionaire, his dad is. Hes also a terrible booker and a shit representative when he does interviews etc. He has no idea what hes doing.

No, in the same way that good landlords don't exist.

That's not the same thing as saying that there aren't good people who happen to be billionaires/landlord, but the mere existence and function of those roles within society are inherently negative under the current system.

Bruce Wayne

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/3/AABM4yAAEpwx.jpg

I have yet to see a billionaire that isnt a self absorbed asshole.

I'd argue that my own current job as a retail manager requires you to be a shitty human sometimes. That's just how money works, unfortunately.

Tony Khan is a Billionaire, but its only like 1.5 Billion dollars net worth.... only. I want to say Gabe Newell. Don't get me wrong, they did some shady things in the 2000s but the stuff he does these days is pretty good for the community. Making the Steam Deck moddable, open source and constantly giving deals for PC games. Steam may take a big cut of revenue but its a pretty wide selection for what it is.

The only downside I can think of is that they moved from being a software company to a hardware company.

Ivany2008 posted...

Tony Khan is a Billionaire, but its only like 1.5 Billion dollars net worth.... only. I want to say Gabe Newell. Don't get me wrong, they did some shady things in the 2000s but the stuff he does these days is pretty good for the community. Making the Steam Deck moddable, open source and constantly giving deals for PC games. Steam may take a big cut of revenue but its a pretty wide selection for what it is.

The only downside I can think of is that they moved from being a software company to a hardware company.

Steam doesnt even take a big cut. 30% is standard across retail. Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, etc., all take 30% or more, and Valve gives developers quite a lot in exchange for that 30%.

Epic are the only ones who tried to make an issue out of it, and that was just a selfish marketing ploy, which didnt even work because publishers can do math and realize that 70% of ten times more sales is better than 88% or whatever of virtually 0 sales. So Epic had to throw fat sacks of cash at them as bribes to make up for all the lost year one sales.

Wow.

A lot of blind and unjustified hate for people in this topic.

Unsurprising from a liberal echochamber that wants everything handed to them without doing any work.

inb4 jk rowling

NightingaleMD posted...

Wow.

A lot of blind and unjustified hate for people in this topic.

Unsurprising from a liberal echochamber that wants everything handed to them without doing any work.

^This is how normal, well-socialized adults behave.

KitKats posted...

inb4 jk rowling

^ unironically yes. At least with how she made her money, ignoring the "good" qualification and instead focusing on the ethics of how they made their money.

Writing probably the most beloved book series in the last 50 years followed by movies and merchandizing that has brought countless joy to millions, if not billions world wide, her money was definitely well-earned.

I think her anti-trans views are over stated and she's basically a good person.

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

I think her anti-trans views are over stated and she's basically a good person.

A good person wouldn't have any views even slightly anti-trans

To blanket any group of people as purely bad or good is to say you have no understanding of people.

That depends entirely on your definition of good as well. Certainly they likely do more damage than your average mid level employee, but that's really the weight they goes with the territory. At the same time these billionaires at the top of companies that create jobs, many likely fund research, they're not solely what the news says they are.

Even knowing this though it doesn't make me like them any more, but I'm not so good as to think I know enough to call them all evil.