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submitted 1 month ago by 1984@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world

One of the best things I read was an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie called The Gospel of Wealth. It makes the case that the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society, a radical idea at the time that laid the groundwork for philanthropy as we know it today.

In the essay’s most famous line, Carnegie argues that “the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” I have spent a lot of time thinking about that quote lately. People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that "he died rich" will not be one of them.

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[-] Dayroom7485@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I‘ve said it before and I‘ll say it again: Gates is not a saint, but there is clearly a difference between him and fucks like Thiel, Sacks or the Koch family who would never consider donating any of their money to research ways to eradicate Malaria or fund education programs for women.

[-] ozoned@piefed.social 19 points 1 month ago

And he'll still be a billionaire. And he got that money by suppressing the world with proprietary software. He's single handedly helped hold humanity back. I don't care the good he's done as it's built on the back of all the harm he's done.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

Beat me to it. Anand Giridharadas has spoken on the general scam of billionaires white-washing their legacies like this... their philanthropy seldom approaches, much less exceeds, the harm they did in getting so rich in the first place.

[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

And somehow, even when proclaiming to give "Most" of their fortunes away, it ends up in a "Charity" or "Philanthropy" they control.

[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

He was also a major opponent of the efforts during Covid to waive medical patents for producers in the global south to allow faster distribution of those vaccines.

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

Shouldn't be much of a surprise. His family has always been eugenecists with a "benevolent" mask. Not knocking what his foundation has done against malaria, but I believe he's said some very direct things about wanting lower birthrates in the global south.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago

It's not really about lowering birth rates directly it's about removing the perceived need for higher birth rates.

There are quite a lot of studies that show that even in countries where infant mortality is now manageable it still takes several generations before that trickles down to the population and they stop having 15 kids as standard. Also lack of sexual education doesn't help.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

but I am determined that “he died rich” will not be one of them.

Bill Gates has a net worth of ~$168 billion. Even if this isn't just PR intended to launder his image, even if he does in fact give away 99% of that, it will still leave him with $1.68 billion dollars. Even if he ups that to 99.99% that'll still leave him with $16.8 million, which is still rich by anyone's measure. Bill Gates' idea of 'not dying rich' is radically different than yours or mine; he was never not going to die rich.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

That’s true, but to be fair, if he pulls it off it will be one hell of an example to set.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If your standard for 'a good example' is being a bit more creative with his tax-dodging PR stunts than other billionaires, that's a pretty low bar. A better example to set would be to not exploit people to accumulate wealth in the first place. It takes a whole lot of people like you and me staying poor to make Bill Gates that rich.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago

A better example to set would be to not exploit people to accumulate wealth in the first place.

I do that everyday. Everyone feel free to thank me.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

No one gets thanks for being a decent human being, it's sort of the standard that everyone is expected to hold to.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

I would totally exploit people if I actually got the opportunity to do so, it's just no one will let me do it.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Then you are not a decent human being? :P

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

That’s true. I just appreciate that he seems to do a bit more than Musk to at least keep the appearance of giving back. This still doesn’t get him off the guillotine list.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

I don't appreciate that one oligarch is better at lying to us than another one, that kinda makes it worse in my mind. Instead of telling ourselves comforting stories about how generous these societal leeches are we should be telling ourselves stories about how much better everyone else's lives could be if they didn't exist.

[-] MTK@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

How nice, live as the 0.0000001% that owns the world and make up most of the big evils in the world from the age of 34 to the age of 70 and then from 70 to 90 transition to the top 0.0001% and "not die rich"

A real sacrifice, what a philanthropist, brave.

I'm just here being a top 25% fully aware of my privilege for being born in a rich country and working in a well paying job, and I still donate more then him in terms of percentage of my net worth. (Bill gates donates about 0.8-1.6% of his net worth annually, I donate about 5-10% annually) and I truly believe that no one should be a billionaire.

[-] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Me, bottom 10%, making coffee for a paycheck and scavenging my new pair of pants from a dumpster: Yeah, man, you said it.

[-] demonsword@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Me, bottom 10%

bottom 10% of mankind are most likely starving and homeless, definitely not on lemmy

[-] Slaxis@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago

Assuming they meant in their country, and that their country is USA, bottom 10% as of 2023 was $15-18K. https://dqydj.com/2023-income-percentile-calculator/

[-] demonsword@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

bottom 10% as of 2023 was $15-18K

most likely starving and homeless

[-] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Oh, hey, we're up to the Enlightened Monarchs phase of the Enlightenment of the 18th century.

[-] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

He's donating through his charity to avoid taxes. He will be known as a man that died rich. He has failed, he'll remembered for Microsoft and hanging with Jeffrey epstein to get a Nobel peace price.

Prove me wrong Billy boy.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

He's not trying to be seen as "not dying rich", that's the author's interpretation alone.

[-] HailSeitan@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Can we please not help launder his reputation by proactively giving him credit for something he hasn’t done yet?

[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

And he hasn't done shit to help the peasants of the country that made him filthy rich?

Not shitting on the African communities he's "helped," but he can afford to help a lot more.

Oh, and he shit on making the CVD-19 vaccine IP free.

[-] dreikelvin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

maybe he can buy my bandcamp albums 🥹

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

He learned his lesson in 95 when shipping wezzer with PCs

[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

People should just call his bluff and ask if he would support a big estate tax.

He literally has the financial resources to lobby congress to make it happen.

I honestly don’t understand why self made billionaires wouldn’t do that, it’s not like their kids are gonna be poor, they will still be rich, just not oligarchs level (which they probably would suck at anyway given how they don’t have proper experience).

[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

This is a good comeback. Take that wealth and start lobbying to start fixing shit

He could start up a whole ass organization with departments to fight for education, health care, income equality, homelessness and more.

He could resolve homelessness single handedly by funding homes, but what we need is to fix the machine.

I seriously think we need to focus in fixing education and news/social media regulations to increase critical thinking in the masses and stop the suppression of "woke media"

They're making everyone dumber and brainwashing the masses. How we got our current leader.

Social media platforms are how many Americans get thier information and news. Purposefully spreading misinformation and suppressing non offensive political views should be a massive fine by the FCC.

[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Why would he do that? He's so rich, he can never go broke.

All his "Foundation" bullshit is PR, after he realized everyone hated him before Bush Jr. made all his troubles go away. I wonder how much that "Donation" was?

There is no such thing as a good billionaire.

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[-] RagingSnarkasm@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Give it away to a charity you don't control now, or STFU about it already. We all know you're still trying to rehab your reputation.

[-] taulover@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

Donate to his own foundation which he controls

[-] Dayroom7485@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Not the full picture: He plans to donate the majority of his wealth to his foundation, and then wind it down in 20 years. source

[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Bullshit until it happens.

[-] DarthObi@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

There was this article about Bill Gates getting his most career-making deal by (badly) cloning the software of a competitor. A true genius is above the common law of peasants.

[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The fact that he collected billions (worth of cash and financial instruments) in the first place is the problem. He should have been charging consumers less, and paying his workers more. He never should have accumulated his obscene wealth to begin with.

[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

And not being an evil bitch driving competition out of business with illegal practices.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Way too late to matter you coward

[-] JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'll believe it when it happens, until then all I hear are promises that could be broken.
Words alone are meaningless.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The irs accepts donations.

[-] CaptnNMorgan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
[-] Feyd@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Unless he actively works towards making billionaires contributing to society non voluntary he is still part of the problem. Billionaires shouldn't exist in the first place.

this post was submitted on 10 May 2025
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