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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

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501–510 of 565 posts

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

#501
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…

He managed to build a self sustaining form of altruism that doesn't depend on taxes or a field of call centers harassing people for donations, that has to be worth something, regardless of the ultimate motive.

My worry for instance is that what he's doing in not scalable on the level of a society, yet it's polluting our public thoughts so much that better solutions are stifled.

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

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are pretty high prices. Are they manufacturing those sweatshirts in the US or other Western country, or are they just positioning themselves as premium brand and selling with 400%+ markup? Or has the clothing market in the US hollowed out in the middle completely? That's what I'm worried about where I live (Poland, EU) - I feel like the middle tier, of normally priced, regular quality clothes for regular people…

I guess the prices for Uniqlo are massively marked up in the United States. In Japan, pull-over sweatshirt costs 1,290 yen, or about 9.50 USD. Ref: https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/ja/products/E458468-000/00?colorDi...

No they don't. That is the sale price and none are available.

https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/ja/men/tops/sweatshirts-and-hoodie... 2990 yen and up for regular price.

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

#503
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> If I had Mr Beast's financial or influence level, the next step I would be doing is wondering why those 1k or 2k people didn't get their healthcare and then trying to patch that. It sounds like you know what should be done. Why don't you have Mr Beast financial or influence level? And why is that necessary to structurally improve healthcare? > So what' stopping Mr Beast from going to that next step? What's stopping…

> Why don't you have Mr Beast financial or influence level?

> What's stopping you or anyone else?

Ad hominem fallacy. Life is not lucky for most people in the world. Don't really have to explain this if you look at how wealth disparity or how poverty trap works. You can wikipedia this yourself.

> why is that necessary to structurally improve healthcare?

Have you ever tried to intensely petition something? Or get an issue in front of your representative to take seriously? Do you know how much work and effort that takes? It's not simply doing an online poll. You literally have to go door to door every day to get signatures, to go out and talk to convince people to your cause, all the while fighting billionaire-funded counter groups and cops.

Everyone's gotta work to feed themselves and their families, get access to employer-only healthcare. People don't have time or money for intense political work. There's a reason why disinformation and interference in politics from Russia was such a big deal.. You have a state-level actor with state-level infinite money pouring into political groups creating societal havoc at the structural level. A regular joe can't do this kind of damage. Only people with serious money can.

The only other way things change structurally is through solidarity. Everyone protests in the streets. Cop reforms didn't come about because people asked nicely. People died and got mad.

So yea, unlike literally 99% of the people on earth who have to slave away at a job, if I had Mr Beast's money I would do the next step and fix issues permanently, because at that income level it's possible to give it a try. Instead, I see a few comments saying he spent a good chunk of that fortune on running a low quality burger chain lol.

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

#504
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…

Whether Beast is a good person and whether what he’s doing actually helps people are two separate questions from whether he’s good for your kids to watch. My answers would be maybe, no, and no. Why ‘no’ for the third one? Mostly because it’s just intellectual sawdust. Nobody learns anything from a Mr. Beast video or engages with any new concept. It’s just the same ridiculous kinds of jokes and contests and clickbait…

I accidentally forgot a sentence somehow:

*His video titles and thumbnails have set a new standard for low-quality, eye-catching, bottom-of-the-barrel hogwash and he is dragging the rest of YouTube down with him as people try to emulate his success.

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

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was told growing up the measure of good work is that you produce more than you consume. That's how families and communities grow and prosper. If you consume more than you produce, you're a drain on your family and community and that's looked down on. Maybe that is Puritan but my own observations have reinforced that and I think if everyone strived for it, our world would be a better place to live.

productivity above all else for every human is pretty disastrous and unappealing. and when that hard work mostly goes toward the profit of some man?

A mindset of producing more than you consume has taken western cultures to where they are now - less poverty and more abundance than ever before in human history. We live freer and eat better and live longer than any of our ancestors. Why do you see it as "disastrous and unappealing"?

What's the alternative? If everyone consumes more than they produce, we all end up in poverty and hunger. That sounds truly disastrous and unappealing.

Most of that hard work goes to the profit of the one doing the work. History shows that arch clearly. Not many surfs or feudal lords about anymore. Your children aren't properly of your owner because you have no owner. Don't buy into the "inequality" BS that's being pushed about. It's not to the benefit of you or the generations that come after you.

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

#506
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

Being poor doesn't mean you don't work hard. In fact, poor people often work a whole lot harder than anyone making good money. Hell, the more I have been paid, the less I have had to work and use my brain. The same applies to each of my friends. I have never come across a person in the opposite scenario in my life. To what you say should be available: There is a state in the USA that has an overwhelmingly single part…

I don't know what would wake up people from their ego dream to see that in order to be a human, to be able to walk with your head held high and not live as a caged animal, you need to have certain basic things in your life. Free health services is one, a small space if you are homeless that is yours until you can get a better job/home/etc., where you can keep your things and the like is another.

It's just mind boggling to see how people do not give a flying fuck about others and only care about their very surroundings and well being.

MrBeast comes into this equation who earns his money by doing these stunts, but seemingly also gives back... I have ambivalent, but lopsided, feelings about creators who do videos about vulnerable people and playing the white knight in armor for who knows why. Anyway, it would be an interesting study how it affects those that are in need and I mean those who watch his videos and daydream away their life in hope for a better life.

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

#507
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…

> can't put my finger on it

It's all about repugnant materialism and self-promotion

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

#508
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probably a lot more from corporate sponsors. Make no mistake, this is big business - not charity. that is is? that is a rounding error for almost any decent-sized tech company. We're talking a household name, and one of the most popular channels ever, which is on the front page of youtube by default. I would have thought it would be more. yes, he made $54 million, but s…

$54m was just a forbes estimate and that was 2 years ago in 2021. He reached 50M subscribers sometime in 2021, 100M subscribers in July 2022, in June 2023 he has 163M. Then if you look at video views, he was doing about 500M/month all of 2021-2022 but in only 2023 he is doing 1000M baseline with spikes to 1500M-1800M for some of the big hitters. See: https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/mrbeast6000 Also: https://www.…

> and over $100m of revenue on beast burger orders sometime last year.

Gross revenue is almost meaningless. Restaurants are known to have very low margins, so how much of that money was paid to the local restaurant, to the delivery service, _in taxes_?

Even once it reaches Mr Beast's company, the company has to pay for a lot of things before it ever reaches him.

I'm sure he's doing well, but he didn't personally pull in $54M in 2021; it's actively counter productive to discuss gross revenue without also discussing expenses, because it conflates "Mr Beast" the business with "Mr Beast" the nom de plume of an individual and likely misleads folks on how much money the individual actually earned.

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

#509
post #447
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then he'd have no money to give away. I don't see how it's this difficult to understand. Either you have Mr Beast as we do now - curing blindness and deafness, giving people houses and cars, raising millions for tangible, proven reforestation and sea cleanup efforts - or we don't have Mr Beast at all. I also find his videos uncomfortable to watch for many of the same reasons stated here, but I don't find them har…

But these videos only get watched exactly _because_ they are demeaning. So the problem is the nature of the videos itself and this alone disqualifies any good this guy supposedly does.

I don't agree with that assertion at all.

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

#510

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? Shocking question, but here's an answer: millions of non-billionaires who donate some money to [good] charities. You never hear from them because they don't go around bragging about their donations.

So is the problem that he has a lot of money or that he is telling people about it?

If the former, it goes back to my point about good being about sacrifice and pain. I.e. me giving 10,000 is better than bezos giving 10,000.

If the latter, the charities they donate to are all talking very loudly about what they are doing. That is literally their job is to bring awareness to a cause and fundraise. They brag about their donations in that they tell you all the good that they have been able to accomplish.

I asked the question because I’m trying to understand the dissonance people feel with him that they don’t feel with what I just outlined.

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