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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

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Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#221

Post by mynameisvlad »

memefrog wrote: post #197
mynameisvlad wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has said on multiple occasions that he puts all revenue towards future videos. There is no margin. The money eventually ends up in the hands of people that wouldn’t have otherwise had it.

He might do so for now, at the moment. That doesn't mean he will do so forever. How long did Amazon run with no margins to build up its business before it made money? How long has reddit been running unprofitably? He still has room to grow his business. And he can cash out quite easily. If he goes a year keeping just 20% of the revenue from his videos he'd make an absolute ton of money.

From everything he has said, he is not and has never been in it for the money. He could have cashed out many times now (he certainly has had the opportunity to, many times now) and lived out the rest of his life with that money.

Is it technically possible? Sure. But he has made no indication that has ever been or will be the case so I don’t see why people are assuming it will happen.

We shouldn’t be assuming the worst in people when they have shown no indication that this is the case.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#222

Post by isoprophlex »

scottLobster wrote: post #41
triyambakam wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could not let them watch it if it makes you uncomfortable.

Then they'll resent you and watch it on their friends' phones anyway when they can. And they'll suffer socially because they won't be able to talk with other kids at the lunch table about the most recent episode.

Or, you know, you sit down with them and talk about why they can't.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#223

Post by seydor »

A lot of people seem to agree that "the end justifies the means" with his charitable acts. That's what rubs people off imo. Imagine a porn star making vids to give to charity. Would people give equal praise to her?

This kind of attention-seeking is considered too easy, and too easy is usually not considered ethical. I wonder how many will imitate his deeds?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#224

Post by oh_sigh »

guyzero wrote: post #210
Dig1t wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man this is such a cynical take. I listened to his interview on the Joe Rogan show and was really impressed. Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video. Using this approach he was able to produce progressively larger and more expensive videos. He has demonstrated his frugal lifestyle, has publicly given away an incredible amount of money to good causes, and has…

"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…

The reason those people don't have access to surgery has nothing to do with mrbeast.

Do you think he could actually get a law changed and help more people than he already did? Why wouldn't a "Mr Beast goes to Washington" style video get as many views as his direct support videos got?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#225

Post by listenallyall »

Timber-6539 wrote: post #111
chimen wrote: post #80

It's not altruism if it's your source of income. Sorry but I don't buy this bs. He's doing it to generate income, that's all. Altruism is "unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others" but we have quite the opposite here - a selfish way of milking poor people for emotions in order to generate income. Real altruism is hard and done only by a few. Literally EVERY man/woman/child on this planet will say yes…

Despite what you've been taught, every act of charity comes from a selfish need (ego). Whether that is predatory or not from the standpoint of the donor, I'll leave that up to you to decide. And to be clear, his acts of charity have made an impact in the people who have benefited from it. Whether the public response is positive or negative is besides the point.

Some serious Ayn Rand vibes up in here. Kudos.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#226

Post by kaba0 »

batmaniam wrote: post #172
motoxpro wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this take on him so strange. I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum. i.e. true altruism means that I lose something and you gain something. Maybe it is a hold over from religion and the idea of sacrifice being the ultimate good. The times I have had the most impact (helping people in need, teaching, starting my own NPO) it has been very much positive sum. If he has zero…

> Can someone give me some examples of philanthropy that is NOT predatory/extractive? Richard Stallman and his work on free software? I think what OP is saying is that at Mr Beast's income level, he can effectively create a lasting change that most of us can't. Instead he focuses on people individually, giving them nice gestures but nothing life-changing, and he continues to do this because his viewers demand these t…

> Richard Stallman and his work on free software

There are no more controversial example than him.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#227

Post by motoxpro »

daed wrote: post #196
motoxpro wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this take on him so strange. I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum. i.e. true altruism means that I lose something and you gain something. Maybe it is a hold over from religion and the idea of sacrifice being the ultimate good. The times I have had the most impact (helping people in need, teaching, starting my own NPO) it has been very much positive sum. If he has zero…

> I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altruism By the first definition it requires “unselfish regard”. If MrBeast is pulling 54 million a year (along with lots of fame and clout) he’s not exactly qualifying for the first definition. Definition 2 is the one I’m most familiar with from the animal kingdom, and it actually requires that…

That makes sense. Thanks for that. If unselfish means that I can't benefit in addition to you benefiting I don't think I see altruism as a super positive thing.

Turns into "he gave up his last dollar for that person!" which is seen as a super altruistic thing to do, but now, not only does that person only have a dollar, you've taken yourself out of the game and can no longer do any more good in the world because you don't have any resources left.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#228

Post by kelnos »

scottLobster wrote: post #41
triyambakam wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could not let them watch it if it makes you uncomfortable.

Then they'll resent you and watch it on their friends' phones anyway when they can. And they'll suffer socially because they won't be able to talk with other kids at the lunch table about the most recent episode.

I dunno, my parents didn't let me watch The Simpsons when I was a kid. Sure, there was occasionally talk about the latest episode at the lunch table, but it wasn't a big deal, and I turned out ok. One of my closest childhood friends watched it, and we're still friends now, 25+ years later... he's never held my lack of Simpsons knowledge against me.

I think the idea that "parents won't let kids watch X" is somehow damaging to a kid's social health is a bit silly.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#229

Post by kaba0 »

dataviz1000 wrote: post #208
chimen wrote: post #80

It's not altruism if it's your source of income. Sorry but I don't buy this bs. He's doing it to generate income, that's all. Altruism is "unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others" but we have quite the opposite here - a selfish way of milking poor people for emotions in order to generate income. Real altruism is hard and done only by a few. Literally EVERY man/woman/child on this planet will say yes…

After releasing Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg donated several million dollars to the Shoah Foundation. In an interview, he said that he rarely gives his name when he donates to a cause and made the exception because he wanted to use his name to bring light to what the Shoah Foundation was doing — creating an archive of witness accounts of Holocaust survivors. The reason he said he donates anonymously is that, ac…

There is also “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#230

Post by oh_sigh »

batmaniam wrote: post #219
moomoo11 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the 1000 people who can see now or hear “got one fish for a day”? Come on bro. It should be up to society to ensure the health check doesn’t return just 200 OK but that everything else that makes that 200 OK possible is also actually fine. MrBeast is an entertainer who happens to make a brand by doing stuff that does some impactful thing. More than most people. Now those 2000 people who can see and hear.. maybe th…

Right, that's on the individual level. You and I can donate to a medical organization that helps people 'see and hear' too. Or fund a go-fund-me to help that person. It's great that person got immediate access to the healthcare they needed with this money. We can do basically what Mr Beast does right now if we pooled our resources together. The bigger issue is why that healthcare is inaccessible to them in the first…

What is Mr Beast's net worth? Maybe somewhere between $100M and $500M.

There are at least 1000 people in the US right now, probably far more, who have just as much money or influence as him.

What's stopping all of them from going to that next step?

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