Now is a good time to flood Wikipedia with donations. For the first time in my life, i have just donated to them and will do so again. You can do it too for a minimum of €2, no requirement for recurring donations or any nonsense.

        • The Giant Korean@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Why? They’re either born with the money or make the money, but either way the money has turned them into terrible people.

          • Maven (famous)@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’d argue that you have to be horrible already to have loads of money. Any reasonably good person would be using their excess wealth for a good cause rather than building ego rockets.

            • The Giant Korean@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Money = power, and power corrupts. I’m sure there are some people who are horrible before they become wealthy, but I think money (and power) has a way of blunting peoples’ empathy.

              • decisivelyhoodnoises@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Normal people stop exploiting others before they reach having unfathomable amounts of money. So somebody with different values and morals will never have so much money since it is impossible to make such money without being corrupt and a piece of shit

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          10 months ago

          I mean, Musk was born fairly rich, but not like that. Most tech billionaires come from a sort of upper-middle-class to low-upper-class background, probably just because there’s not a lot of super rich families to start with. There are a few lower-class exceptions that prove the rule, although they can be hard to pin down because they all like to claim they grew up rough (and therefore earned their place by being better the peasants), and of course the heirs of other billionaires.

          As far as I can tell, they act about the way a random person would given their situation. You get power-drunk dicks like Elon Musk, but also philanthropists like Chuck Feeney (who gave it all away) and Bill Gates, while most just stay quiet and enjoy having unfathomable wealth (Bezos, Zuckerberg).

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        No. Assholes are assholes, and Elon is just an asshole with money.

        Compare this man child to a billionaire like Yvon Chouinard, founder of the company Patagonia, and you’ll understand that money doesn’t change good people.

        • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          No such thing as a good billionaire. The only variance is how good they are at maintaining their public image.

          • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Thanks for the video. That guy seems to go off on a lot of tangents, sets up too many strawman and red herring fallacies. He also doesn’t actually prove that Yvon is somehow evil in a way that’s comparable to Elon, or that he lied about anything.

            The only real criticism he had was to say that Yvon is purposely evading taxes and assigns that motive with absolute certainty (red herring).

            It sounds to me like Adam has a problem with the system. Hell, he even said that it doesn’t matter if good work is actually being done, because he doesn’t like the idea of billionaires using their money for good. Then he goes on to give an example using Walmart (not an ethical company) and Bill Gate’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein… bizarre how he even went there as a way to disprove what Yvon has done with the company.

            I’m not saying that Yvon or Patagonia are perfect. Heck, I don’t give a damn about the CEO of any company, and I think I only own one of their products, so I have no loyalties at all.

            But they are a for-profit business (they are very clear about that) who operates under some of the most ethical guidelines available, and they have a multi-decade proven track record of environmental stewardship and human labor practices.

            We need more companies like them, even if Adam doesn’t.