[ExI] effective altruism

[John Clark]

On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 3:16 PM Ben Zaiboc <ben at zaiboc.net> wrote:

> *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 can't think of any billionaire who has inflicted less harm on the world
when they made their money than Bill Gates. And Gates has already given
away 40 billion dollars, mostly to the poorest of the poor, and has said he
intends to give away 6 billion a year until it's all gone. Gates is by far
the greatest philanthropist who ever lived, not just because of the huge
amount he gave but because he gave it away so wisely. If Bill Gates had
never been born millions of people who are alive and well today would be
dead, and if all super rich people were like him I wouldn't worry as much
about the accelerating wealth gap.

> *As with Christianity, it's tempting to wonder where we would be now if
> Microsoft Windows had never existed.*


I can tell you exactly what would have happened, people would be ranting
about how evil Steve Jobs was because nobody loves the guy who is on top.

 John K Clark




Spike wrote:
>
> "Note all the ways Bill Gates has been criticized, but sheesh come on!
> The guy really means well, and OK then, meaning well isn’t always doing
> well."
>
>
> 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. As with Christianity, it's tempting to wonder
> where we would be now if Microsoft Windows had never existed.
>
>
> Ben Zaiboc
>
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>
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