It isn't hard at all to say whether Bill Gates is an "overall net 'good' person" or not. He became a billionaire (which is an inherently exploitative act), and no amount of trying to whitewash his legacy with philanthropy after the fact can change that.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca -5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Oh I'm sorry, did I express an opinion that wasn't an overly simplistic black or white answer? Thank god the internet edge lord economy is still going strong to correct me.

[+] Dagnet@lemmy.world -7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Crazy how people feel the need to be able to judge everyone in a group exactly the same huh? One billionaire not being an asshole and they need to shut it down because it would break their reasoning. Billionaires can be assholes and Bill Gates can be an exception, doesnt change anything really. The saddest part is that this is the line of reasoning to racist people use to evaluate 'other races' : group them up and condemn them all, easier than actually evaluating each case.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

If you buy the argument that billionaires have become such by collecting the extra value their employees create above the wage they get paid, then it's easy to see why many consider them harmful regardless of their personal traits. In that framework, the billionaire that's the least harmful is the one that has the fewest billions. Luckily, unlike race, there's an easy way to become a non-billionaire. One option is paying higher wages so that you never become one. Another is lobbying for high taxes and paying them. Yet another is giving enough of money away as to become a millionaire. With race, there are no options to become not-that-race.

And so we judge billionaires as a group, as a class, because of their function and effect on society, the economy and the political system. Not because we think they're all bad people that we have to hate. They cannot be billionaires without having these effects.

Speaking of value employees make above their wages, here's a fun fact. If you take the average yearly net income (profit after costs) of Google and you divide it by their number of employees, you get a number around half a million per person, per year.

[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

let's just forget for a second what he did or not in epstein's island, being a billionaire is bad wether the person is an asshole or not. it means we live in a socio-economic system that enables someone to concentrate an insane amount of resources and decide solely out of his mind how to direct the spending of those resources. that they are not being used entirely to solve global warming or world hunger or disease issues is problematic and it's not some token value spent on charity or point-based solutions that is going to change that. the fact that he doesn't want to break the patents of covid vaccines is pretty much an example that, when pressed hard enough, he will act on the interest of his class, regardless of what he personally thinks.

the fact that he associated with epstein, independently of his reasons, is just the cherry on top of that shit sundae.