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psadauskasyesterday at 8:13 PM5 repliesview on HN

Right? If I had enough money that I could make a serious dent in local or even global poverty without noticing the change in my lifestyle, and I just... chose not to, I have no idea how I could sleep at night.


Replies

csallenyesterday at 8:36 PM

Huge numbers (billions) of people have enough money to make massive changes to the lives of those less fortunate than them, but don't, and prefer instead to make incremental upgrades to their own lives. New rugs, more savings, first-class airline tickets, eating out a few more times a month, etc.

This is just human nature.

People who are at wealth level x tend to say, "I can't believe that people at wealth level x+1 aren't more generous!" all the while ignoring their own lack of desire to give generously to people at wealth levels x-1 and below.

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malfistyesterday at 9:34 PM

Elon tweeted that he'd fund ending world hunger if someone presented him with an actual plan to do that. UNESCO did. Elon did not act.

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phatskatyesterday at 9:16 PM

Trump has largely not had that kind of money. He’s had a _lot_ of money, many many times more than most, but by all accounts except his own, those numbers are much lower than he likes to brag about. Well, they were - there’s been a troubling amount of money going out of the federal government that isn’t well-accounted for under his reign.

He had the kind of money that can hire expensive projects on trust that payment in full will be rendered, but only kept his money by often not paying out.

As with all things Trump, even up to the new ballroom not having a front door despite the massive staircase, his wealth is more in appearance, and less in actual assets…or was. Of course, someday maybe we will know the true extent or shortfall of his bank accounts

keyboredyesterday at 10:09 PM

I don’t get puzzled that the criminal doesn’t use his ill-gotten gains for pro-social causes. Why would a person ever use anti-social means to acquire funds for pro-social goods?[1]

This is not too disimilar from the case of the billionaire.

[1] Excepting some Galaxy Brain philosophies like Effective Altruism

surgical_fireyesterday at 8:43 PM

If you had that amount of money you would also be a sociopath. It's a precondition.

Good news is that you would sleep fine at night. No matter how destructive your existence was, and how much of a net negative you were to the world, you would still think very highly of yourself.