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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

#411

Post by goodpoint »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #145
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…

His videos make hundreds of millions of people happy and probably more likely to donate or be charitable. That seems like more than zero impact to me.

By this logic a casino is altruistic and charitable.

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

#412

Post by aforwardslash »

It is perfectly possible to have an altruist and a business agenda in the same space. That's how most non-profits operate - they have a revenue stream (donations, trust funds, etc), they pay operational expenses including salaries for the staff that keep the machine running (just like a company), and funnel the rest for their specific activities.

The only real difference (besides taxation) between a non-profit and a regular company is the distribution of dividends - companies may slice profits directly between their shareholders, and non-profits cannot do this. MrBeast seems to be rebooting the non-profit enterprise with a broader approach and leveraging modern revenue streams - such as ads - instead of the traditional guilt-trip of shocking images or statements to pressure you to donate.

It's a business? Yes. Does it help people? It seems so. To the people arguing it is localized and sparse: so what? Like it or not, they are changing the world - not only those that are reached by them, but also those that are inspired to pursue similar enterprises.

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

#413

Post by seydor »

deely3 wrote: post #338
seydor wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is philanthropy porn. He is not the philanthropist because he doesnt haev the money in the first place, he is using other people's money to perform charity on camera. I 'm not very religious but it is a tale as old as humans. The christian gospels called out this hypocricy for a reason: > Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the…

> He is not the philanthropist because he doesnt haev the money in the first place, he is using other people's money to perform charity on camera. How does one can acquire money in the first place without recieving money from other people? Does your money should appear from nowhere, so you will become "true" philanthropist?

In the same sense, UNICEF could start making reality charity porn and use the proceedings for charity. Would people accept that, is that ethical? No. Their public campaigns are sensitive and don't slather the faces of hungry children on youtube for advertisers.

I find it weird that i need to explain the difference.

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

#414

Post by YurgenJurgensen »

Gigachad wrote: post #124
scottLobster wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's no different than Olympic Athletes and other professional stars telling kids to work hard in school and one day they too can compete in the olympics/be a professional athlete, with no mention to the tens of thousands of hours of training, long hours, strict diet, and frankly unhealthy levels of obsession typically required to propel someone to that level. As a kid I admired a lot of people/shows that I later wis…

It’s probably actually beneficial to believe some difficult task is reasonably obtainable. You’d try harder and be more motivated than if you believed it was virtually impossible.

Unsubstantiated evo-pop-psych incoming:

I have believed for a long time that accurately assessing your chances of success on big bets is maladaptive. Ambitious projects (whether they be science, construction or mammoth hunting) could benefit society enough that on a societal level they're good even if a lot of them fail, but the benefit to the individuals taking on the risk could be low enough that it's not worth it for them (due to the diminishing returns of additional wealth on an individual level).

Gambling is just exploiting this mechanism to extract wealth.

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

#415

Post by prepend »

renewiltord wrote: post #57
prepend wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you determine this? He’s not a charity so isn’t forced to file data so charitynavigator can determine his payout rate. What percent does he give to charity? And how is it audited? How does he compare to top charities?

Clever move since Charity Navigator rates you very highly if you spend almost all your charity money on growing yourself like the Harvard Management Company does. I don't outsource my moral judgment so I can safely conclude that HMC isn't a "good charity" as CN calls it.

CharityNavigator isn’t perfect, but it is better than nothing. It at least checks for things like independence, board composition, and other factors.

It also confirms IRS charity status.

MrBeast isn’t a charity at all. It’s good he gives money, but we don’t know how much he gives, or what percentage, or how effective he is.

Judging good or bad charities is up to donors. CN doesn’t say if something is good or bad, it just tells you how spend their money. Harvard spends all their money on their school.

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

#416

Post by prepend »

rozap wrote: post #82
prepend wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s shady because he puts his name on crap and doesn’t care because everything is BS. Would you start a burger business without quality control? Would you let random companies put your name on crap? That’s shady.

How is this any different from Kirkland brand stuff from Costco? They just happen to have a reasonably high bar because they're playing the long game. It's not the practice that you likely have an issue with, it's the individual.

Good example. Kirkland stuff is good. It would be shady if Costco put their name on anything and didn’t care about their product.

So if you see something with the kirkland brand, you have some expectation of quality. And if you have a problem Costco will fix it (or drop the product).

The MrBeast brand doesn’t really stand for anything. And he doesn’t correct quality problems.

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

#417

Post by mid-kid »

jabl wrote: post #404
xrd wrote: post #4

My kids love Mr Beast. I'm uncomfortable with it and can't put my finger on it. It feels like he makes life look like you stand a good chance of having someone walk in and give you $100,000. Maybe there is no harm in thinking that? But it feels like the same thing as buying a lottery ticket. I guess YouTube is free? But is the time spent on that channel worth it over doing other things? I admire the approach he takes…

> My kids love Mr Beast. I'm uncomfortable with it and can't put my finger on it. Same. I'm going to sound like an old-man-yelling-at-cloud, but the content is, well, just mindless drivel. There's a near-endless amount of informative content on youtube, but no, instead kids are drawn like a magnet to this kind of stuff. Not saying kids must spend all their screen time on Khan Academy or serious documentaries, but wat…

From an adult perspective, I'd agree, but on the other hand I've spent hours upon hours of my childhood watching fail compilations and random video game parodies and newgrounds animations on youtube. I'd say it's a "let kids be kids" kind of deal, even if I faint at the amount of money that goes into youtube video production these days.

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

#418

Post by NoPicklez »

bsaul wrote: post #372
NoPicklez wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others have put it better than I have. But I don't see how his impact is absolutely ZERO when he's at least given 1000 people his vision back. There's pranking people for money online, then there is giving people life altering treatments for free. Imagine having a life where you make money helping people and bringing joy to other people's lives. The only caveat is that those people are featured on a video... that the…

So imagine going to someone who's blind, and say "we'll pay for your treatment, but you've got to let us film you... oh what's that ? you don't want to ?... ha.. i'm sorry, next !" Is that really altruism ? It sounds more like a business deal to me.

Firstly, it is debatable as to whether there is anything truly altruistic. For MOST acts aren't truly altruistic but that doesn't stop us from doing good things or being seen to be a good person.

Of course there is an element of business, otherwise he wouldn't be able to make these videos in the first place if people didn't agree to be filmed. The difference here is that being on camera is a small price to pay than the price of bringing your own eyesight back, something these people cannot afford.

The ability to do these treatments doesn't come out of thin air.

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

#419

Post by eozoon »

chimen wrote: post #282
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…

Lemme know if he does it without filming and I'll be the first to call out my BS. Some people just don't see the forest from the trees but it's all good with me, MrBeast needs you for income. True altruism is hard, this is business.

Major charities does the same.

I have heard anthropologists tell anecdotes about Red Cross refusing to help a village just a couple of hours drive away from their outposts because there is no press coverage and they would rather spend their supplies on places where it'd get reported on, because the report brings in more donations. Emotionally I sympathize with the people that the speaker spent time with and resent Red Cross's decision, but pragmatically I can see that it make sense.

I've talked to nurses who volunteered at MSF say they passed by many villages that needed help on their way to their destination, a more well-known location that will bring more attention for their services. Lord knows they lamented over it, but the decision was made by the organization to ensure they get the maximum donation needed to help more people.

I have literally never watched a single Mr Beast videos, but going by what I'm seeing in articles like these, I fail to how what he's doing is any worse than most charities.

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

#420

Post by blitzar »

namarie wrote: post #255
cm2012 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it better if he paid the people to make beads or dig holes instead of entertaining his viewers?

I think so, yes. It'd be even better if he just gave the money, no strings attached.

That would be like the pimp giving their stable of ho's money and not making them prostitute themselves.

Who then would pay for their pimp-mobile and bling, and the upkeep of the ho's?

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