• Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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    1 year ago

    Good acts do not make a good person. Plenty of billionaires have done good things, but they don’t even come close to outweighing the bad.

    • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I love a quote I read once in a thing about alignment. “If you fix twenty neighbor’s roofs, you’re Jimmy the Helpful Thatcher. But if you eat the neighbor’s daughter, you’re Jimmy the Cannibal, and no amount of additional carpentry assistance will change that.”

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Traditionally this joke is:

        Bad Scottish Accent Engaged

        I build 200 ships, do they call me Seamus the shipbuilder? Nae.

        I paint 100 houses, do they call me Seamus the Housepainter? Nae.

        But ye fuck one sheep…

    • quat@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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      1 year ago

      A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.

  • Synthead@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A single good thing that a single billionaire has done? The Gates foundation fighting malaria. I think that’s good.

      • TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Is the topic of the thread called “Should we tax billionaires” or was it “I dare you to name one good thing a billionaire has done”?

    • Mangoholic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Sure but, considering they use only 5% of the money they have for all there “good” projects and invest the ither 95% in fossil fuels. The gates Foundation is really only a little good because the law forces them to use min of 5%, to stay tax exempt. So if they didn’t have to, would they still do it? I doubt that.

      • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        OK I’m sorry maybe I’m letting the autism overflow my brain but seeing you just say “wrong” to technically correct statements that answer the question presented here is just so fucking annoying. Ooooo you got so many upbears from fellow Hexbears who dont want to think but just dunk. Getting very frusterated with this community right now.

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s pretty easy to come up with some things billionaires have done that are good. Bill Gates funding cures and prevention of diseases in the third world is one that comes to mind.

    Now, if we’re talking about finding an example of a billionaire whose life is on balance a good thing for humanity…that’s pretty much impossible.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Chuck Freeney. He basically invented “Duty Free” stores and became a billionaire in the process. Then decided he should die “broke” and created The Atlantic Philanthropies secretly staking it with a little over a third of his wealth. In 2020 he closed the organization because he had given away the vast majority of his net worth. Mostly as grants to universities all over the world. He also may have low-key helped fund the IRA.

    He’s still got enough to live comfortably, and I’m sure his family is set up nicely.

    • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Funding one of the biggest terrorist organisations of the 20th century doesn’t sound like a very good thing to do… Same goes for all the other Americans who gave them money without realising they were (are) pretty much universally hated across all Ireland - much like how most Muslims hate IS

        • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          Not at all, they’re both disgusting groups of people (as were & are unionist extremists) who ruined the lives of people they claim to be liberating

          Frankly they’re incredibly similar organisations

          • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            You understand that there’s a difference in like, motive right?

            Like however you feel about the IRA’s methods, their motives is still something worth fighting for. And honestly like when you REALLY fight for something like that, like actually do what’s necessary, its a messy process and you’re going to do things that moderate liberals look down on as going too far. We can argue about if all of their actions actually serve the cause, but what they wanted to do is something I agree with.

            Versus ISIS? Really? What noble and positive goals does ISIS have?

            • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              To some people pleasing god and liberating people from sinful leadership is something worth fighting for. And when you REALLY fight for something like that it’s a messy process and you’re going to to things that moderate liberals look down on as going too far.

              That is the exact argument you are trying to make, and if you think that it is a deranged extremist view you should take a good look in the mirror - I can see autism shining through here due to your utter inability to see others points of view and draw equivalences.

                • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  1 year ago

                  Don’t worry, I’m autistic too, it just so happens that I don’t hide behind it or use it as my whole identity and I’m self-aware enough to put in a bunch of extra effort trying to do the things which don’t come naturally, like seeing things other points of views

                  It’s fucking hard but at least I don’t live in a perpetually online bubble

  • Giddy@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Tony Khan created AEW and seems to genuinely care about his employees. He put on a private plane this week so the wrestlers could attend the funeral of Bray Wyatt and still make it to Dynamite

  • Giddy@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Mike Cannon-Brookes (co-founded Atlassian) has set up a 1.5b green fund to invest in green energy projects

  • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    What? They’re greedy humans who are doing things that have terrible consequences out of selfishness, not mustache twirling cartoon villains out to destroy the world for destruction’s sake. I’m sure every single billionaire in the world has done something good at some point. That doesn’t justify the kind of wealth disparity that makes their existence possible though.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
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    1 year ago

    Elon Musk. Without him, electric cars wouldn’t be the almost-mainstream thing they are today. We also would be a decade behind on space launch.

    //Edit - for everyone down voting me, you may hate the guy today but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done some useful shit.