<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span class="gmail-m_5881139976018595970gmaildefault" style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span><i style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I always assumed that Bill Gates' philanthropic activities were a flawed attempt to somehow make up for what he's inflicted on the world in the process of making his money. ben</i><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><i style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br></i></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small"><font color="#500050"><i>I have not been privy to all the anti MS stuff over the years. Clearly, among software sorts and others who are not just users like me, Gates is a monster. And for what? Putting out a flawed product? That people bought by the hundreds of millions? Are we supposed to be against Gates for being the better salesman/ marketer than Apple?</i></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small"><font color="#500050"><i><br></i></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small"><font color="#500050"><i>In any case, I think it is more than a stretch to think that Gates did what he did out of guilt over his products. It is unfair to him. It might even be true but you don't know, and you are making a possibly biased assumption that does not speak well of you. What was he supposed to do? Withhold his product until it pleased everyone? He would have gone out of business, I think. He had hundreds of programmers. Maybe he should have had thousands? The software was put together by committees, right? And just what do we think of committees? </i></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small"><font color="#500050"><i><br></i></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small"><font color="#500050"><i>bill w</i></font></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jul 10, 2019 at 9:24 AM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="gmail-m_5881139976018595970WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] effective altruism<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><div><p class="MsoNormal">On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 3:16 PM Ben Zaiboc <<a href="mailto:ben@zaiboc.net" target="_blank">ben@zaiboc.net</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><blockquote style="border-top:none;border-right:none;border-bottom:none;border-left:1pt solid rgb(204,204,204);padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_5881139976018595970gmaildefault"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">>> </span></span><i>I always assumed that Bill Gates' philanthropic activities were a flawed attempt to somehow make up for what he's inflicted on the world in the process of making his money. </i><u></u><u></u></p></blockquote><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">>…I can't think of any billionaire who has inflicted less harm on the world when they made their money than Bill Gates….</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> John K Clark</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">How do we count stock fund billionehs who quietly make their money with astute investing, then get really lucky? They didn’t harm anyone at all from what I can see. All trades were completely voluntary, all traders chasing a common goal. The lucky few make it big without inflicting a trace of harm to anyone.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">How do we count guys like Peter Theil who made billions by working out the details of PayPal? That didn’t harm anyone that I can tell, and pleeeenty of people benefitted greatly. I don’t see counting the guy who used to ride shotgun on the armored truck to pick up the cash from the bricks and mortar stores and haul it to the bank, who now isn’t needed much (Remember those rolling bank trucks? We don’t see them much anymore.)<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">Get a good idea, turn it into something outrageously cool, people will buy it, you make a buttload of money created from nothing, no one is harmed at all. Now you get to pick and choose how to make your world a better place, including charities, including stockpiling gold (for that employs the miners, refiners and pocket liners) it includes hiring a bunch of guys to build you luxury stuff, for they get a fun job, feed their families, and the luxury stuff they build is still here after you perish, everyone wins, life is gooooood.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">If we put our minds to it, we can think of plenty of people who made it big without taking anything from anyone. This illustrates the notion that wealth does not need to be evenly distributed because it can be created in arbitrary quantities from nothing, then good people create good jobs and do good deeds with the profits. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">spike<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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