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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

#431

Post by prepend »

ardkf wrote: post #137

I'm surprised at the negative view here. He had a very interesting interview with Joe Rogan a while back where he explains his business model. He does crazy expensive stuff on the main channel that might break even but often loses money. But this funnels viewers into the other Mr. Beast channels, like gaming or reacts, that are much cheaper to produce and do make money. The flywheel turns and he makes more money whic…

> crazy expensive stuff on the main channel that might break even but often loses money

I remember him bringing this up in the interview and it’s an odd statement. “Often loses money.”

It makes more money than it loses, obviously. So it’s weird to call out how some videos lose money. Yes, that’s how the world works. And some make make money. More make than lose, that’s just how everything works.

And then he donates some profits to charitable causes.

Im not sure if he’s not sure how business works or his audience doesn’t. Im not sure why this line about “often loses money” irks me.

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

#432

Post by prepend »

Gigachad wrote: post #132
kcb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, if you give away $100,000 then post a video about it that makes $200,000, I call this a 50% margin not altruism of philanthropy,

At least it doesn’t seem to be a net negative on the world. He could be using $100,000 to market crypto scams, or “prank” videos. Giving it to poor people, even if not from pure generosity, is far from the worst thing he could be doing.

It’s definitely not the worst thing.

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

#433

Post by prepend »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #184
kcb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, if you give away $100,000 then post a video about it that makes $200,000, I call this a 50% margin not altruism of philanthropy,

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’s definitely said that. But there’s no confirmation or audit or accountability. It’s like crypto companies saying on multiple occasions that they were solvent.

The claim is also objectively disprovable since the man lives, has homes, etc. So he’s spending something on non-video things.

And that’s ok. It’s just that “100% into future videos” is clearly not true. Maybe it’s 99.999%. Maybe it’s 0.001%.

We don’t get to know unless he goes public or registers as a charity.

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

#434

Post by scoutt »

vasco wrote: post #307
guyzero wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

> But this doesn't strike me as being done out of any noble purpose Money given away doesn't have to have a "noble purpose", the act is good in itself. The people receiving it don't care about motive, I don't care about motive, and the only reason you care about motive is because you're threatened by another person doing good. There's no virtue inherent to giving anonymously. A piece of food or a warm house don't car…

> I don't care about motive

Pablo Escobar gave free money away. Would you take the money? He also built schools.

Motive matters. His intents were to build loyalty masked as charity. MrBeast is building (or has built) something else, masked as charity.

I hope MrBeast never stop giving away money and curing people, but there are some considerations to make here, and not just taking as granted the reasons the very same person doing charity is clearly trying to transmit.

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

#435

Post by blitzar »

ilyt wrote: post #376
slim wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where "spends" includes his undisclosed wages ? (guy does not seem to have any other source of revenues)

> (guy does not seem to have any other source of revenues) I mean I googled "mr beast merch shop" and now I'm pretty sure it does, so dunno why you throw that claim without checking literally anything

Merch revenue is revenue - Video sponsorship revenue is revenue - Product placement revenue ... revenue - Adsense revenue is well not much revenue.

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

#436

Post by imgabe »

chimen wrote: post #276
imgabe wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lot easier to complain about how someone else isn't helping people the way you think they should than to help people yourself.

I don;t complain of anything, let's just call a spade a spade. This is not philanthropy or altruism. It's marketing, a business and entertainment.

Philanthropy can also be marketing. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Like, what's your goal here? Nobody is allowed to help anyone unless they do it wearing a hairshirt and flagellate themselves afterwards? Are you trying to have fewer people get helped?

Of all the things in the world to gatekeep, you pick helping people?

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

#437

Post by j45 »

bnlxbnlx wrote: post #84
zik wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also uncomfortable with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy but what I'm seeing is a very successful business with an enormous and very expensive campus. MrBeast himself is very rich. So what I'm seeing is a corporation claiming to do everything for the benefit of others while actually taking a lot of the money very visibly for themselves. His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probabl…

> There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy Why not? To be able to "give" you first need to accumulate way beyond what you need to attend to your material needs. Accumulating such wealth means taking more resources than you need in the first place. It's still fully within the scarcity and separation mindset of capitalism.

Everyone can give. You can give.

Giving time, care, an ear to listen is really valuable.

These things make big differences because it’s often what people pay money for too

Giving is not just for after earning lots of money.

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

#438

Post by throwaway2990 »

defrost wrote: post #429
throwaway2990 wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eye laser surgery is considered elective. What country do you live in that covers it as part of socialise healthcare?

Eye laser surgery? (LASIK, PRK, etc.) I thought the discussion here was about cataract surgery. Australia has "free if you're poor and can wait" o/wise relatively cheap depending on your private health insurance. https://www.finder.com.au/cataract-surgery-costs Working vision correction to avoid glasses | contacts is purely elective in .au https://www.finder.com.au/laser-eye-surgery

Sorry I meant cataract surgery. I just happen to be discussing eye laser surgery with a friend considering it.

Seems misleading for that site to say it’s free. There’s small fees which you end up paying that Medicare doesn’t cover. And afaik you require a referral for public hospital which is not covered.

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

#439

Post by lofaszvanitt »

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…

He is either a tool and does what he does because he has to,

a benevolent, yet idiotic in his ways entrepreneur or

a calculating one.

Neither one is good.

This miracle making is very very very bad for the average person imho. People need to learn that they shape their life by working on it, not waiting for some tooth fairy to give them a thousand dollars. Plus there should be institutions for those who are in need and health related services should be available to everyone.

Mr Beast cannot fulfill these roles, no matter how hard he tries.

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

#440

Post by shaman1 »

dymk wrote: post #333
shaman1 wrote: post #285

Not religious but I remember Jesus's words (lol): > Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. > So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. > But when…

The Bible also says being gay is a sin, so I’d say it’s not a great source of morality in general. Arbitrary at best.

Can understand why some primitive people were not big fans of gay people, they would not 'multiply' the tribe. I wouldn't describe it as arbitrary, after all it was compiled by 'learned' scribes but more like based upon the needs of those times.
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