I got downvoted on Lemmy the other day because I said that I prefer Bill Gates to Musk.
Maybe there are things about Gates I don’t know. Maybe he is actually quite an evil person; I don’t know. But he does at least spend billions of dollars helping vulnerable people, right? And Bill’s stances on global politics are far more sensible than those of Musk.
I would like to recommend listening to the Behind the Bastards episodes on Bill Gates. He’s a piece of shit. Not as bad as Elon, but that’s not really the point.
Yeah maybe there’s stuff I’m not aware of. I’ve seen some people on Lemmy point out that Bill Gates lobbied for the University of Oxford to not open source their Covid vaccine. I suppose that seems shitty on the face of it.
Well yes, but no. If you see capitalism, which includes billionaires having a right to exist, as a set standard, I would 100% agree with you. But billionaires shouldn’t even exist in the first place. You only become a billionaire, by either massively exploiting your workerforce, capitalising every single aspect of your product/customer and not redirecting your profits back to society. We shouldn’t live in a world, where we are cheering for people giving away their money, that they shouldn’t own in the first place. There is no ethic way to be a billionaire.
To prevent misunderstandings: I 100% agree, that this is actually a good thing, but we still have to raise awareness about the societal and political problems of billionaires existing in the first place.
I agree it should be illegal and it is immoral, but these are the current rules of the game. It’s not that Bill Gates is necessarily evil, the problem is how modern states and societies distribute wealth, which is based on a credit system where small incomes are dominated by large incomes (owners get most of the credit). The guise is that they also assume the risk but we know that very rich people eventually gain political power to mitigate that risk on the many not rich people. The problem then is that there is no easy way for not rich people to self organize and distribute credit more fairly, which also needs to distribute risk as well. Cause at the end of the day, it is about two things: people wanting to avoid risk and yielding credit and people accumulating wealth and gaining political power, over many generations. That said, Musk is a very twisted and malicious personality while Bill Gates is more of a typical rich entitled person with a savior complex.
There are no good billionaires. But I must agree that Bill Gates cannot be compared to Elon Musk. Bill has done evil, but his evil doesn’t compare to what Elon Musk is doing right now
I think it’s a silly to waste one’s time struggling over deciding which one is worse. They’re both billionaires who spend hundreds of millions of dollars undermining the public interest. Gates just cares more about his PR than Musk.
The massive cock slobbering that Warren Buffet got at his Woodstock of Capitalism last week was nauseating. All the media were fawning over how he’s still a small-town Nebraska bumpkin. I have to hand it to him he crafted his image perfectly as a “good billionaire” too.
Nuance is lost on a lot of people on here. All billionaires bad therefore no billionaire is preferred. While I agree there’s no good billionaire there’s a spectrum of bad. Like would I rather break my pelvis or break my legs? Both are bad but one is preferable.
That nuance is not important - it’s not worth wasting your breath on. If people focused on root causes of the dysfunction and the change needed to solve the issues plaguing our societies - we’d be much better off.
The nuance isn’t lost to me, I just don’t care to quantify it and then shout it out to the heavens. It makes no difference to me whether Elon Musk is worse than Bill Gates. They can duke that battle out themselves if they care to.
But, given the reality that billionaires do exist, one that spends his money curing diseases is less bad than one who is closing hospitals serving war round populations or actively starving people.
I mean Gates donated his own money to help the poorest people in the world. Elon spent his money to become president so he could steal money from the poor at people in the world.
Down to the wire, though, if Elon is responsible for killing the world’s poorest children of today then that logic should translate to Bill Gate’s being responsible for killing the world’s poorest children of yesterday.
It’s pot and kettle. Gate’s might have used his position of great wealth for some good things but there are also some… questionable things. According to him his conversations with Epstein were ‘huge mistakes’… this is, of course, referring to Gate’s relationship with Epstein - something that took place after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
I will wager that some people from some nations asked him to stop helping based solely on the fact that we can’t get millions of people to reliably agree on anything.
I got downvoted on Lemmy the other day because I said that I prefer Bill Gates to Musk.
Maybe there are things about Gates I don’t know. Maybe he is actually quite an evil person; I don’t know. But he does at least spend billions of dollars helping vulnerable people, right? And Bill’s stances on global politics are far more sensible than those of Musk.
Musk is a shitturd but he didn’t make windows.
I would like to recommend listening to the Behind the Bastards episodes on Bill Gates. He’s a piece of shit. Not as bad as Elon, but that’s not really the point.
Yeah maybe there’s stuff I’m not aware of. I’ve seen some people on Lemmy point out that Bill Gates lobbied for the University of Oxford to not open source their Covid vaccine. I suppose that seems shitty on the face of it.
Well yes, but no. If you see capitalism, which includes billionaires having a right to exist, as a set standard, I would 100% agree with you. But billionaires shouldn’t even exist in the first place. You only become a billionaire, by either massively exploiting your workerforce, capitalising every single aspect of your product/customer and not redirecting your profits back to society. We shouldn’t live in a world, where we are cheering for people giving away their money, that they shouldn’t own in the first place. There is no ethic way to be a billionaire.
To prevent misunderstandings: I 100% agree, that this is actually a good thing, but we still have to raise awareness about the societal and political problems of billionaires existing in the first place.
I agree it should be illegal and it is immoral, but these are the current rules of the game. It’s not that Bill Gates is necessarily evil, the problem is how modern states and societies distribute wealth, which is based on a credit system where small incomes are dominated by large incomes (owners get most of the credit). The guise is that they also assume the risk but we know that very rich people eventually gain political power to mitigate that risk on the many not rich people. The problem then is that there is no easy way for not rich people to self organize and distribute credit more fairly, which also needs to distribute risk as well. Cause at the end of the day, it is about two things: people wanting to avoid risk and yielding credit and people accumulating wealth and gaining political power, over many generations. That said, Musk is a very twisted and malicious personality while Bill Gates is more of a typical rich entitled person with a savior complex.
There are no good billionaires. But I must agree that Bill Gates cannot be compared to Elon Musk. Bill has done evil, but his evil doesn’t compare to what Elon Musk is doing right now
I think it’s a silly to waste one’s time struggling over deciding which one is worse. They’re both billionaires who spend hundreds of millions of dollars undermining the public interest. Gates just cares more about his PR than Musk.
I get what you’re saying 100%, but it’s really not a struggle to decide which one is worse.
The massive cock slobbering that Warren Buffet got at his Woodstock of Capitalism last week was nauseating. All the media were fawning over how he’s still a small-town Nebraska bumpkin. I have to hand it to him he crafted his image perfectly as a “good billionaire” too.
Oh but I heard he lives in a humble little house in Omaha!
“Humble Little House in Omaha”----->
They’re tone deaf. Comparatively that property IS humble in the world of billionaires. But that ain’t no roach infested bachelor.
Yeah i agree with the point you’re trying to make but I know some people with a bigger house and they’re office goons, not rich people
That is his house? It is far from a simple house. It looks quite fancy.
For the wealthiest man in the world, this is a pretty modest house.
It’s a ship of Theseus situation. Apparently it’s the “same” house he bought in 1953… at this point though it’s just the same property.
Gates was born in 1955 though… Spooky music
He absolutely can be compared to Musk – he’s better than musk.
Yep well said
Not sure. Bill gates ex-wife told his relation with Eipstein was the reason of its divorce.
Which is bad. Bad that motherfucker also made windows, which is worst. I hate Elon but he didn’t make my computer BSOD every half an hour
Nuance is lost on a lot of people on here. All billionaires bad therefore no billionaire is preferred. While I agree there’s no good billionaire there’s a spectrum of bad. Like would I rather break my pelvis or break my legs? Both are bad but one is preferable.
None are preferrable. Nobody should have that much wealth, power, and influence.
Thanks for proving my point.
That nuance is not important - it’s not worth wasting your breath on. If people focused on root causes of the dysfunction and the change needed to solve the issues plaguing our societies - we’d be much better off.
The nuance isn’t lost to me, I just don’t care to quantify it and then shout it out to the heavens. It makes no difference to me whether Elon Musk is worse than Bill Gates. They can duke that battle out themselves if they care to.
Yes, that is accepted.
But, given the reality that billionaires do exist, one that spends his money curing diseases is less bad than one who is closing hospitals serving war round populations or actively starving people.
I think making value judgements on individuals is a counterproductive use of our time, energy, and voice. That’s what I’m trying to point out.
If we focused on root causes and the change we’d like to see to solve those problems, we’d be smooth sailing as a world already.
I mean Gates donated his own money to help the poorest people in the world. Elon spent his money to become president so he could steal money from the poor at people in the world.
Gates donated his money to avoid taxes and start a big pharma company.
Also Bill Gates comment is about USAID an imperialistic tool which has killed many millions of children. The irony of this statement is palpable.
https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2013/07/03/gates-foundation-s-support-monsanto-reveals-it-has-put-ending-hunger-back-burner
Down to the wire, though, if Elon is responsible for killing the world’s poorest children of today then that logic should translate to Bill Gate’s being responsible for killing the world’s poorest children of yesterday.
It’s pot and kettle. Gate’s might have used his position of great wealth for some good things but there are also some… questionable things. According to him his conversations with Epstein were ‘huge mistakes’… this is, of course, referring to Gate’s relationship with Epstein - something that took place after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
Idk, something for your brain to chew on.
People on lemmy know that “A is better than B” means “A is good.” You have to learn to speak the language.
Didn’t some nations in Africa ask Gates to stop helping?
I will wager that some people from some nations asked him to stop helping based solely on the fact that we can’t get millions of people to reliably agree on anything.