I'm assuming this isn't factoring in the harm they're doing. How much do Bezos's donations to homeless services offset his union-busting? Is there a formula for that?
Which billionaires are doing the most good?
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Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#32Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#33I don't like rankings like this. I'm not saying all of them, but at least a few made their money off of the backs of others, being ruthless in business, etc. How gracious of them to give money to people they hurt in the first place. I'm glad they are doing good, but let's not pretend they were completely altruistic. Also, a number of these people donated money years ago to avoid taxes, and the money was invested and…
>a number of these people donated money years ago to avoid taxes This isn't how taxes work. If you donate money then you've only reduced your taxable principal. You "avoid taxes" in the sense that it's as if you never made that money. You don't magically reduce your burden any further than that. People won't take your otherwise fine point seriously if you include this commonly made error.
Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#34I'm assuming this isn't factoring in the harm they're doing. How much do Bezos's donations to homeless services offset his union-busting? Is there a formula for that?
Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#35Are the metrics for this described somewhere? I find the top two surprising. From their numbers, Dorsey has donated $1B (26% of his current $3.8B net worth), while Gates has donated $36B (36% of his current net worth). So....Gates has donated more as a share of his net worth and SIGNIFICANTLY more in raw numbers. What justifies putting Dorsey ahead of him?
> Koch Industry's Molex is transforming its production line to help produce Sense's Biodetection new COVID-19 test that produces result in less than 10 minutes.
I wouldn't ever classify this guy as doing something "good", unless good is coincidentally beneficial to him.
Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#36It is often the case that soft social pressure is the best way to enforce desirable behaviors amongst people. Within friend groups where there are no formally established laws or codes of conduct, there are certain implicit standards of behavior people are expected to abide by, and part of why they do is because of the threat of social ostracism. In a broader scope, in ancient societies social ostracism was often use…
Re: Which billionaires are doing the most good?
#37Just tax them.
True gifts are freely given, not forcibly taken.
Examples include: Your data, subsidies from your tax dollars to create asymmetric markets, common things like water quality or environment, or legal asymmetry that allows for rent-seeking.