Comment on Flashback - Mark Zuckerberg on billionaires: 'No one deserves to have that much money'
UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Sounds like he’s been humbled by the Metaverse’s failure. Big money also means big losses one day.
Jeff Bezos recently pledged to donate about $124b for charity and fighting climate change. It really seems like these billionaires have been hit by 3 ghosts.
Still eat the rich, but I guess there’s been some good news from them.
These tactics are precisely intended to placate critics.
It is not good news when Bezos commits funds to charity and fighting climate change.
Good news would be the mass of society rising to end the conditions that cause climate change and that make charity necessary.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
From www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/…/index.html:
So he made a vague promise that he would give away “most” of his money to fighting the climate change that is exacerbated by his lifetime’s work and the social divisions that he has worked relentlessly to entrench? He could fight social divisions by treating his employees well and allowing them to unionize, but he has fought dirty against unionization at every opportunity.
Forgive me for suspecting he’s full of shit with his vague and noncommittal promise, after a lifetime of doing the opposite.
Changetheview@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah, the wealthy “giving it all away” is always a bullshit scheme in some way. If they really felt that way, they would have shared the profits with those who helped create them. This sort of wealth only happens in literally one situation: greed overcomes compassion for others.
These schemes usually fall into one of three categories:
I fucking hate my kids and don’t have anyone I think actually deserves this money, so I’m giving it to some random charities of my choosing when I die because I know damn well I can’t spend it all and I have to do something with it
I’m just putting it all into a charitable trust that I still have full control over and likely won’t spend much out of it, unless it benefits me personally
Straight up bullshit PR campaign about a future promise that is not binding
Quite often, it’s a combination of 1 and 2, locking up the money for a loooong time and only to be used for a specific purpose.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Charitable trusts have to be donated to charity. You can’t pull the money back out. It’s like giving it away that year.
Yeah, a ton of things can be a “charity”. You can donate the money to your friends at a church or a clubhouse for your friends and still have it be a “charity”.
Changetheview@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I think we’re saying the same thing. Many ways to get personal benefit from a charitable trust. They are irrevocable trusts, but the majority money doesn’t immediately have to go anywhere.
And even when money does flow out (beyond admin/establishment costs), there are TONS of creative ways to use it for personal benefit. It’s not like they are certainly giving it to make sure society has what it needs.
See Rolex and Hershey. Or giant charity galas. Many ways to use the funds for “non-profit” entertainment. Plenty of ways to get kickbacks from “charitable” donations.