• ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    To be fair, if I was a billionaire and I had the choice of helping ordinary people or doing something awesome, I would definitely pick to do something awesome. I respect Bill Gates for fighting malaria, but I would go for spaceships or robots.

    • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Which is why not you, nor them should have so much money. We need to prevent idiots from doing idiot things by redistributing their wealth.

    • thrawn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Gates has the money to do both, and more. It’s just sometimes better to let others do it instead— having your own space company means worrying about competition, contracts, and potential profitability. Meanwhile if he wanted, he could hitch a ride on any of their rockets with no effort.

      Musk and Bezos also have the money to do both, but they merely elect not to. Perhaps in the future they will, like Gates, begin funneling more of their effort and wealth into altruism to improve their reputations.

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But if it’s something awesome marketed towards saving humanity then do something actually awesome and impactful instead of distracting bullshit like hyperloops and Mars colonies on unrealistic time-frames and self-driving cars instead of public transportation. Endless talk and grand gestures when these people have the resources to really drive improvements/innovations in achievable realistic projects.

            • hellishharlot@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              Lol it’s not virtue signaling it’s malicious compliance. My workplace has vacation and sick days pull from the same incredibly small pool. They’re also very anti work from home. So since I’ve explained the problem and was told to just take vacation time when I’m sick, I decided to just not “be sick” and explain the problem when it comes up next