Let’s say that you have an opportunity to gain billions to fix the society from the top. Do you think that you would keep your integrity and use your money for the greater good, or that you would be corrupted by your power?
If so, would you still accept the offer knowing that you would just make the situation worse?
And if you believe in yourself, how would you try to convince an hypotetical entity to give you this wealth?
To avoid regrets let’s say that if you decline the offer your memory about the deal gets erased.
You can’t fix society from the top.
Every person has to do their part to fix society.
The idea that societies can (perhaps only) be fixed from the top is a convenient excuse to abdicate one’s own responsibility for taking care of things around them.
Billionaires should not exist.
I’d basically become Bill Gates without the monopoly.
People criticise the big philanthropists for skewing all the work their way, but that’s more a product of not enough funding elsewhere than of the foundations being bad themselves.
If you see Bill Gates’ philanthropy in a positive light, then his public relations machine has done a number on you.
- The Nation: Why Bill Gates’s Philanthropy Is a Problem
- Jacobin: Bill Gates’s Philanthropic Giving Is a Racket
- Adam Ruins Everything: Why Billionaire Philanthropy is Not So Selfless
- Citations Needed podcast:
- Episode 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire: Bill Gates and Western Media
- Episode 46: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part II - Bill Gates in Africa
- News Brief: Big Pharma, Bill Gates Spin Against Generic Vaccines for Global South as Biden a No Show
- News Brief: #VaxLive is a PR Scam So Those Causing Vaccine Inequity Can Pose as Saviors of Global Poor
- Episode 146: Bill Gates, Bono and the Limits of World Bank and IMF-Approved Celebrity ‘Activism’
Infinite wealth?
No.
I would do petty things like buy Tesla, destroy all the factories and then dissolve it. That way there are no assets to recover.
I would start buying massive tracts of land to build a functional passenger priority rail system.
I would start removing lanes on highways. Electric cars are not the future.
I would destroy cities and remake them so that city roads only prioritize emergency services.
I would buy up all the crypto and do absolutely nothing with it in hopes that it would die.
I would upgrade Texas’ power grid so it could connect to other states. That way they won’t freeze to death every time it snows.
I would buy up buildings in desert regions and start demolishing them.
I would buy up all the insurance companies and shut them down.
I would build a big dome over the state of Ohio so nobody comes in or out.
I am very petty.
Yes, if you’re offering I’ll take it
