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eqvinoxtoday at 9:39 AM1 replyview on HN

Arguably, being a billionaire and being a compassionate human being are mutually exclusive. You'd spend your wealth and not be a billionaire anymore.

The only question is how much of a grey zone is there between these 2 points.


Replies

ben_wtoday at 11:56 AM

Everyone's somewhere in the grey zone, even the beatified within Catholicism are imperfect mere mortals by Catholic standards.

Philanthropy is always hard to place exactly. When you're a normal person, it's just how much money you can give to charity; when you're rich, you have to ask questions like "will my donation break something?" (Mansa Musa) or "is it better to spend all of my money at a shot to eliminate some problem forever, or put all the money in a charitable trust which pays out the dividends it earns each year forever, without ever fully fixing it but always at least helping?" (how is the Gates foundation doing with all the recent stuff about the guy himself?)

I think Richard Branson is generally considered to be a decent person?