Why There's No Such Thing as a Good Billionaire
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it in threads about wealth and charity, either as support for the view that no billionaire is benevolent or as a contested counterpoint.
What it is
Adam Conover argues that billionaire philanthropy is harmful, using examples like Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard. He says we should stop accepting the myths about benevolent billionaires.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2022 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends agentultra · 2022-12 · on “Two Executives in Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Plead Guilty to Fraud”
There are no such things as benevolent billionaires. There’s a problem with a society that enables billionaires to exist at all. It shouldn’t even be possible but we’re here for a lot of reasons. [this video]
Cites w1nst0nsm1th · 2022-11 · on “Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth”
I didn't read they article but I don't have to... [this video] It's all about avoiding taxes. It's an 120 years old story.
Cites forkerenok · 2023-03 · on “Gordon Moore, Intel Co-Founder, Dies at 94”
> why the ultra rich, once they've cashed out, create foundations that hand out grants? Not qualified to say whether this is exactly the case here, but I think this video about charities/funds as power-wielding vehicles bears some relevance: [this video] Disclaimer: not a big fan of the delivery style in the video.
Cites blktiger · 2023-06 · on “Apollo will close down on June 30th”
Adam Connover has a video that pretty directly contradicts this assertion. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in-between. [this video]