• DontMakeMoreBabies@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    Fuck this asshole for existing - I don’t give a shit what he does, good or bad, because no single person should get to decide what happens to that much stolen wealth.

    • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I have mixed feelings. His gist is basically that he agrees billionaires shouldn’t exist and that there’s no ethical billionaire and he wants reforms to make it so they don’t. But he argues that we live in a system where billionaires are inevitable and that it would be stupid not to invest wisely and make billions if he can because if he doesn’t someone else just will and he can use the money for good.

      However, even if you buy this narrative of good billionaire, you can just look to his ties will Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda gates foundation to see that, even if he did mean well, his perception on how to do good is completely twisted.

        • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Bill gates put a lot of effort into making monopolies. He tried to stomp out Linux. And, part of his whole weird philantrophy was trying to circumcise the men of Africa to save them from aids but inadvertanly likely increased the spread of aids which is just one case study in how his foundation can help but also does harmful bananas shit.

          Listen to the behind the bastards on him. Warren buffet might get a pass if you squint, but Bill Gates is a bastard.

          Edit: I would like to say that “increased the spread of aids” is probably misleading in that I make it sound like the program overall increased AIDS in Africa. That is not true. There is controversial evidence that circumcision may decrease the spread of AIDS. There’s controversial evidence that circumcision led the risky behavior in circumcised men who felt they were immune after circumcision. The data, since its an uncontrollable population study, is messy. But, Bills foundation involvent in Africa has had many unintended consequences across the continent that has saves some lives and cost others and no one man should have such strong say on the health policies of an entire continent. Personally, I also feel very strongly no one man should have such strong sway on campaigns which result is mass surgery on the genitals of an entirely different group of men when there are arguably better ways to mitigate disease transmission.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Fifty. MILLION.

            The man should literally be made into a saint. “Oooh Linux blah blah” FIFTY FUCKING MILLION LIVES SAVED. The man has far outweighed anything bad he’s ever done in his life.

            • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              Bill Gates has saved 50 million lives according to Bill Gates. But his business and philanthropy practices have directly and indirectly led to degradation of quality of life and death in such complex ways we can’t even put a number on it.

              Because Bill Gates, and generally philanthropy from people of his generation, want to throw money at a problem without asking the people they are trying to help how to help them. When you just try to save people without including them in the process because you think you know better than them what’s best for them, there’s usually pretty unintended and bad side effects.

              So, not only was he a pretty cut throat and immoral business man, but even when he tries to buy his way into being a good person with the money he makes from his business practices that rely on monopolies and unethically cheap labor, he fucks it up.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              8 days ago

              At the same time you could argue that his decisions have affected billions of people on this planet in a negative way and the fifty million lives saved were to whitewash everything else he’s done. He’s not doing it out of the kindness of his heart, he did it because 1) Melinda told him she’d fuck off if he kept being such a jackass, and 2) As one of the most hated men in the world, he needed to fix his image.

                • boonhet@lemm.ee
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                  7 days ago

                  I mean he more or less did it at gunpoint. Do you not remember how hated he used to be? He would’ve been shot by someone eventually for sure.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      There’s a tweet floating around the Internet that says: “You know that question where you’re asked if you’d press a button for a million bucks, knowing it would hurt someone somewhere that you don’t know? That’s how you get billionaires. They’re pushing that button as often and as quickly as they possibly can.”

      Billionaires are motherfuckers. All of them.