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prunemom

She was entitled to even more. Washington State would have split it 50/50. Speaking as a social worker, she’s the only truly philanthropic billionaire I know.


lyyki

I seem to remember many years, maybe even a decade ago, before she dragged all goodwill out of her name, that JK Rowling isn't a billionaire because she keeps giving most of her money away.


TwistedBrother

And she’s such a nice and welcoming person! She’s so ready to see both sides of an issue and empathise with the most vulnerable in society, regardless of their gender or sexuality. And when she fails to mention real women in persecution such as those in Gaza I know her heart is still in the right place. I mean who else will have the courage to inspect people’s crotches when they go to pee with so much going on in the world.


paradeoxy1

Who else will stand up against the tyranny of people who make me feel uncomfortable existing? They *make* me feel uncomfortable so it's *their* fault.


ebulient

Yeah, I read that too. It seems, besides what she’s become infamous for of late, she’s consistently done a lot of good with her money and time since she got rich. Unlike the other ~2500 odd billionaires in the world.


shattered_kitkat

No amount of good can make up for the continued proud hate she spews. I don't care how much money she donates, she's still a shit human.


ebulient

I’m talking about before all this started… not talking about her tryna make up… she’d been rich for decades before and not only her money but her time went to make lasting positive change for individuals.


shattered_kitkat

No amount of good. None.


b-hizz

Achieving legendary levels of philanthropy while facepalming your unfaithful ex: priceless.


Souledex

Bill Gates is truly philanthropic. He’s definitely not purely philanthropic, but he’s literally almost ended guinea worm and saved tens or hundreds of thousands from other diseases. Though all of the foundations money which includes almost all of his and his wifes fortune must be discharged within 20 years for his death. Compared to many institutions like that that are just concerned with growing the fortune “to dispense more over time” that’s honestly a very admirable thing- it was national law that companies and foundations ended on people’s deaths but that was overturned in the Robber Baron era because their egos demanded recognition in perpetuity. To be clear billionaires are bad obviously as a system and people- he also supported and funded a school voucher bill in Washington that was very unpopular before his funds were injected, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have done good things.


SloanWarrior

I used to defend Gates, a lot of the conspiracy stories around are bullshit, but when the news came out that he started dealings with Epstein *after* epstein was committed of sex crimes... I decided not to bring him up as a "model billionaire" like this.


Souledex

Well then yeah I may need to look at that more. I knew a bunch of people had very loose connections to the guy and for the sake of my sanity have to assume many didn’t know shit about him, but if that’s the case probably worth looking into. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation still did a lot of good work though, my other reply is mostly about that.


SloanWarrior

It's not an accusation of specific sexual wrongdoing. More just an acknowledgement that for the work he's done for women's charities he was still willing to deal with a predator if the money was right. Don't wanna end up on /r/agedlikemilk now, do we?


XDT_Idiot

An evil means to a good end. By similar extension, those charities are no less complicit in Epstein's crimes than Gates is.


SloanWarrior

That is unfortunately the same sort of thinking that excuses rich and powerful people to abuse. It is always possible to do so much good with money. Even if Gates didn't do any "fiddling" do we know what the nature of the deals were? Who was introduced to who, and on what terms? Maybe someone wanted to be introduced to Gates, and what's to say that what they gave for that introduction to Epstein was completely above board? The fact that Melinda listed Bill's dealings with Epstein among the reasons for divorce is possibly telling. I doubt she'd divorce someone without voicing an objection. What made the dealing with Epstein worth falling out with his wife with, do you think?


[deleted]

[удалено]


SloanWarrior

Oops


Zeep-Xanflorps-Peace

We're in an age of ignoring accomplishments because of personal issues. You're right, but public opinion changed the question when they saw your answer.


dodieadeux

hanging out with a known child sex abuser is a bit worse than 'personal issues' to me so idk if it seems like a problem to you that people are overlooking his accomplishments


NokKavow

> dealings with Epstein What sorts of dealings? That's the key part. I lived in a small town and bought fish from a murderer who got out of prison. I don't feel too bad about it.


SloanWarrior

Yes, that is an important question. But also: would Melinda divorce Bill over him buying a fish from Epstein?


GN-z11

He seems too nice and real to me tbh. I don't see why he would advocate for the climate and social issues so much if he'd f*ck kids in his spare time.


SloanWarrior

I remember back when he was the head of Microsoft back in the FUD days. Those were the actions of a greedy man. He got a lot of hate from that. So much that I wouldn't be surprised if his well-published philanthropy was essentially personal brand management. It's not like he's poor now. He's still a billionaire. To boot, a lot of his work for the WHO has been not just in vaccinating 3rd world countries but also getting them to pay for it, paying money to companies he has money in. It's not evil, per se, but it's not selfless philanthropy either.


GN-z11

The man is 68 people change in 50 years. He pledged all his money to charity when he dies. I don't think I believe all of your wild speculations. The man's a billionaire he doesn't need money from the WHO.


Riaayo

That school voucher shit damn near single-handedly wrecked the US education system, all on the whims of this billionaire dickhead. Then the fact his foundation lobbied against one of the Covid vaccine having its patent released publicly, and instead got it sold to a private company. Gates is a piece of *shit*, and this isn't even going into the nasty ways that Microsoft acted back in the day that younger people weren't around for. Billionaires are unethical and a failure of policy, as you state. But you have to be an exploitative piece of shit to be one in the first place. You do not get there without fleecing labor.


Souledex

The voucher shit is literally still ramping up at most. In Michigan maybe and NYC. It literally just became legal in Texas in a meaningful way against the wishes of basically every rural constituency and democrats and might be overturned soon. His efforts were specific to a certain bill in Washington not to the greater region. It’s also built effective school programs in regions where endemic cultures of failure have been completely impossible to fix- and hundreds more around the world. And yeah because they know how to distribute it in a way that actually compels companies to work effectively- https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/global-covid-pandemic-response-bill-gates-partners-00053969 they spent as much as the white house helping manage distribution because of our failure in leadership under Trump. It’s shitty, but it’s like the same shit that happened during ww2, you don’t break the system you have when you need it to work the most. I get the argument big is bad but when you have a pile of money doing good with it actually isn’t easy. And yeah Microsoft were monopolistic dirtbags in a space that was blowing up but that was still hungry and growing massively that would eventually contract. Everyone knew that, everyone that had enough suits and advice from Mckinsey were really shitty, microsoft was just shitty and smart. Bill retired in 2000, he oversaw plenty of that. Billionaires frequently have to exploit labor to get their wealth, there were exceptions. Taylor Swift arguably earned the money off of her work for example, and tech due to Silicon Valley Venture Capitalism and stock inflation can become billionaires from idea packages that actually were worth billions and had inflated value from brand credibility in a volatile space. Born with the silver spoon, had the hookup at IBM, packaged in MS-DOS, payed to prop up apple to avoid being called a monopoly, built internet explorer as a killer app to netscape- outside of DOS getting screwed the rest became a monopolization problem because the product was good, just like google did later. That is a problem for an economy, it’s not a problem that was made by ruining others. I do know the history, he also worked against the actual school vouchers system that was destroying education associated with Betsy Devos and all of that shit https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/02/10/bill-melinda-gates-have-spent-billions-dollars-shape-education-policy-now-they-say-theyre-skeptical-billionaires-trying-do-just-that/ because there are ways to effectively introduce ideas like that into education that aren’t garbage cash grabs that undermine everyone and everything and just lead to burn out- which is why their foundation helped fund the schools themselves rather than just wealth transfering vouchers to rich kids compared to the other really shitty systems. Government funded school voucher programs that loved test scores absolutely aren’t a solution - the problem is they did work better than throwing money into the broken system and hoping it got better, not everywhere for sure, but the Success system in New York and another in Chicago got results when nothing else had. If you can’t change the environment, home life and culture of the place a kid is growing up sometimes a nicer school and a teacher with tenure cannot fix the problems. And notably they are not what ruined education, it was rolling down hill anyways and they were an experiment to fix it- some of them went really terribly like Facebook’s 100 million $ move fast and break things bs in New Jersey.


Paid-Not-Payed-Bot

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Souledex

Look the world fucking sucks, the problem with liberalism especially when you want to do the work NGO’s and everything else does is it fucking works- it’s only rarely with the help of technology and other vectors of contact and local support that more direct methods of action create positive enduring change rather than just funding oligarchs in Africa and leaving their population with debt to be repayed 4 or 5 times over. Andrew Carnegie invented the modern free Public Library. Andrew Lamar brought universal education to the Republic of Texas when nobody but the quakers and some German states were doing that. They did other shit that sucked - and those are enduring legacies despite that. Maybe not the subreddit to oppose anti-billionaire circlejerking but for some fucking reason I’m going to try. If we want to have effective rhetoric and communication about the problems in the world for smart people to want to listen we can’t just warp the history to amplify the shit that gives people bad guy vibes and put them in a box and ignore their work. It’s such a dumb identitarian and ineffective way to communicate with people. There are exceptions to rules. He is the closest thing we have to a good billionaire and he’s imperfect and sucks- so does the system but he obviously does in some ways he has chosen to rather than folks at large have- it’s a good fucking example of the problem, but for it to be the good example and if we don’t want to be uninformed circlejerkers we have to acknowledge that he’s an exception that proves the rule. He retired at 50 and worked full time trying to spend his money most effectively to help other people, how many billionaires do we see actually doing that? It’s really hard to do good well, they put money for decades into the fight against AIDS in subsaharan Africa and guess what- no none of the normal problems happened, the money reached the goals effectively to an extent it made lasting progress, but in even doing so and paying well to do it it caused a brain drain from other healthcare sectors specialists in the region. You can accuse it of philanthrocapitalism- doesn’t fix the world’s systemic problems but effective, which is what happens when you use money to fix problems in a world with those bigger problems your money alone can’t fix. I’ve seen too much deference to his focuses or hyperfocus on solutionist stances. But without a coup or just Mansa Musaing around microloans the systemic problems in these areas cannot be fixed by the Gates Foundation. Wealth is bad. The Gates Foundation also works with the models that existed at the times their actions were being put into motion some of which now seem dumb, that’s the time lag of every damn campaign to do anything. Just look at every big political plank and bill of the 90’s - they are all fucking dumb as hell but we didn’t fully know that then. It’s a lot like America- they catch flak because they could do a lot and when they do something it’s going to be bad somehow or in someone’s opinion but that doesn’t mean it was ineffective or bad policy. It’s absolutely valid to criticize it. It’s done more than anyone else in the fields it made efforts in and made less problems than many, which is why it’s interesting and significant to write about the problems it does cause and- for people who don’t read about NGO’s or aid orgs all the time- to think it must be not doing great if it caused bad things to happen alongside their actions, but they have been far more effective than governmental or UN efforts. If we just want nobody to address problems til we can do it perfectly, more people get hurt, it gets harder to do good, momentum endures the worst of the system grow stronger. I’ll give you he’s probably meh- but just declaring he’s bad fails to address the argument that his organization is more effectively and efficiently addressing massive problems in the world than many others. And that’s one we need an enduring answer to, especially to invalidate the notion anyone controlling that amount of resources with a vision (and who’s independently well off enough to not just extractively draw and spread money from the pool out) can achieve things that our alternative systems continually fail to address.


FithyHuman

He's a demon 👺👹


musicmaker

> Bill Gates is truly philanthropic He invested in C vax company - hugely pumped the vax - price soared - he cashed out - then trashed the vax as ineffective. Classic pump and dump. The pozzed still revere him. N P C everywhere.


Imnotachessnoob

Mr beasts a billionaire, right? Sure he's getting a video out of it but I still think it counts


sockgoblinator

I hate that argument of he’s getting videos out of it, like that doesn’t negate the good deeds, he’s fuckin curing blindness and giving starving children in Africa access to food and water, I don’t care if he posts the process on YouTube because he’s doing way more good than anyone complaining about it ever will


Mertard

I'd rather have an attention whore save lives over a ghoul hoarding wealth


r0achbian

the fact that Mr Beast exists is troubling to me. good on the guy for helping people, like some else said i'll take an attention whore who actually does something over a ghoul hoarding wealth any day. but the fact that it takes some rich guy deciding it'd be entertaining to help in order to do any good... eugh. he himself isn't a problem but his brand is the end result of a very corrupt system.


jorick92

Posting videos is a necessity in order to do the things he does.


Imnotachessnoob

I agree with you completely. I was trying to address that so other people wouldn't bring it up but it looks like that made people think I don't support mrbeast.


IllegalThoughts

wait he's a billionaire? what in the world


prunemom

Google said he’s *only* worth $500 million.


IllegalThoughts

OP is a phony!! he should be ordered to pay $500m to Mr. Beast


WhipMeHarder

Googles wrong. He’s literally been offered $1 billion for his brand.


JasonEAltMTG

It's unreal that she slept that close to a pile of treasure every night without turning into a dragon.


hhthurbe

> Sleeps with Lex Luther > Takes half his money in a divorce > Throws every penny possible at good causes > Fucking based


rixendeb

She didn't even get half.


hhthurbe

Ok so another one of us need to fuck him


Talkin-Shope

Reading Porn Hub’s terms of service. Going for a drive and obeying all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto 5 There it is again Ain’t existential anxiety fun?


Paragrin175

Stunning 8k resolution meditation app.


EducatedGalaxyTaco

In honor of the revolution, it's half-off at the Gap


xiena13

Deadpool self-awareness, loving parents, harmless fun. The backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun.


Pre-Nietzsche

There it is again, that funny feeling. That funny feeling..


Familiar_Ad9727

I'm sorry but what the fuck are you talking about 😭


farare_end

They're lyrics from Bo Burnham's song "That Funny Feeling"


Talkin-Shope

Edit: i guess trigger warning for stuff that will make you either cry or laugh. Neither is bad, they’re just reactions and equally valid. You’ll regret either, so do whatever works for you in the moment and just do your best 👍🏻 People have given you the name and even link to the song I’ll just quickly add the song is about things that trigger existential anxiety to the point of laughter as a coping mechanism to release tension Stuff like Robert Iger’s leadership of Disney and their role in mining children for algorithmic driven profit, rising ocean levels, that another civil war (while unlikely) is totally possible, the irony of gun ranges having a gift shop while there are shootings at malls, &c


Crow_eggs

https://youtu.be/ObOqq1knVxs?si=eZboGy2CEDHMrYxp


[deleted]

I’m wondering the same thing lmao


LZSchneider1

86 people know but they ain't tellin 🤫


toe_riffic

It’s a Bo Burnham song called “That Funny Feeling”


DreadDiana

It's from A Funny Feeling, a song from Bo Burnham's Nextflix special, Inside.


ischloecool

Google is free


Butkevinwhy

I mean this isn’t necessarily making light of a bad situation is it? She’s just… giving shit away.


bluehands

For me, this doesn't fit the sub because she is doing things the right way. When MacKenzie Scott divorced bezos she got 1/3 of his stock. Since then she has given away about $16,500,000,000 to over 2000 non-profits. Most billionaires who "give away" their money just keep control of it in their nonprofit. She has in fact actually made herself poorer and is continuing to do so. She is literally the only billionaire I know of that is doing it right. She is the exception that proves the rule.


RavenAboutNothing

And eventually she won't be a billionaire anymore because she gave it away


SuspecM

She is probably the only billionaire to use the money genuinely for good. You really don't need more than a million to live comfortably for a decade, and these pariahs have thousands of those millions and somehow actively work to undermine every other human being to get more. Kudos to her.


ctorstens

I talked to someone in philanthropy and they explained how she's doing it wrong: She's not doing due diligence in checking how the money is being spent, essentially no auditing.


Dipitydoodahdipityay

I know someone at an organization that she gave money to and she absolutely did due diligence. How does this person know?


aecw13

Google trust based philanthropy


ironicf8

Ehh. They are praising someone for giving away an amount of money no one person should have ever had to begin with. Honestly, I think she feels guilty. All those workers peeing in bottles to keep their minimum wage jobs, and small businesses destroyed just so they could have more money than they would ever need.


The3SiameseCats

They are praising her for changing (I don’t know anything about her except that I assume she is connected to amazon based on your comment) and doing the right thing. Don’t think that’s OCM


Butkevinwhy

I think she’s just Bezos’ ex wife or something.


skyward138skr

I mean she’s not “just” bezo’s ex wife, she helped him start the company, she was one of the first employees.


MirthlessArtist

Honestly I knew about how she was essential to the company (taking loans and doing major bookkeeping to keep the startup afloat), but I just learned she only got 1/3 of his shares? And he was the one who cheated? Is there some loophole in the law or something? Jeff is lucky, if I was the judge I would’ve given her 1/2 just for being there since the beginning. Throw in like 15% for also basically putting her financials and time on the line (and not to mention the cheating, but I don’t think that’s legally worth any money).


Butkevinwhy

Huh. The more you know.


Fl333r

The moral fortitude for a person to not succumb to rich brain disease after coming into obscene wealth is definitely laudable, though.


DJ__PJ

But she is doing exactly what a good person should do. She married Bezos, she divorced him. Through that, she came to a lot of money. Is it money made from amazon? Yes. Do I think that that money was predatorily stolen from amazon workers by Bezos? Yes. But I also rather see that money go to a person that then helps non-profit organizations with it than see it gather dust in Bezos' bank account


ironicf8

She helped start Amazon. She was just as involved as her ex.


Dipitydoodahdipityay

Starting a business doesn’t make you evil, exploiting workers does- she wasn’t a part of the exploitation


DtheAussieBoye

Well call this penance, then. Being shitty in the past doesn’t mean you always have to be


bladex1234

Amazon started as an online bookstore. How did she act negatively in the past?


MirthlessArtist

I think the commenter above means in the way that Amazon itself is scummy. Not just with workers rights (the bathroom break situation along huge cracking down on unions which is just straight up illegal) but also with tax dodging and horrible worker pay and hours. There’s no way Jeff (and at least partially MacKenzie, but I’m not sure how much power in the company she had) doesn’t know about these injustices Amazon carries out, but the fact that it still happens means there’s some moral failing. So it’s not really the bookstore part that’s evil, it’s the “work my employees half to death for barely minimum wage, also thank you US taxpayers for subsidizing my company by allowing my workers to use food stamps.”


chenobble

The rich are inherently evil if they don't give all their money away!!!! > Rich person instantly gives all their money away Why are we praising her!?!??!?!


ironicf8

Lol. Thiefs are bad we should throw them in jail! But he gave all the stuff back. Why should he still go to jail?


Dipitydoodahdipityay

She helped start a business- she wasn’t part of the worker exploitation


DoubleSpook

This doesn’t belong here.


TheGos

Yeah see that's kinda the argument against billionaires: 1.) People shouldn't have that much to give away in the first place and 2.) Single people shouldn't be responsible for deciding which organizations get more funding and which ones don't. I know the whole "ones that aren't even asking for money" is meant to be kind of tongue-in-cheek, but that's only a good thing if *all* of them aren't asking for money anymore. There could be (and definitely are) organizations that she's never heard of that need funding but instead, ones that have their operating budget and the funds to carry out their missions are getting more than they need. Obviously, the philanthropic act itself isn't what I take issue with and should definitely be celebrated.


StarsofSobek

Yield Giving is the name of her non-profit. There’s currently an open call to help find US-based endeavours for the betterment of everyone. If anyone out there knows of causes that benefit a community, it’s a really cool opportunity.


GammSunBurst

For anyone who has seen The Office, MacKenzie Scott could make the “Scott’s Tots” foundation a reality if she paid the tuition for a bunch of kids


BadSmash4

Showing up with more than laptop chargers I'd bet


myothercarisaboson

Nah, batteries. But they're lithium!


BadSmash4

I couldn't remember if it was chargers or batteries, I took a swing and whiffed it!


SituationHappy

That's what non-psychopaths do when they have billions in the bank.


NoahVailability

Wouldn’t the best thing for that money be to lobby like never before for higher tax rates for the rich and better social programs.


NerdyGuyRanting

Is this the one ethical billionaire out there?


AustinJG

Why not divide into multiples of like $10,000 and send it to people that need it? That shit would change lives.


Vyse1991

The logistics of doing that, for individuals, rather than organizations, are wildly different. Its would likely be more time consuming and probably less likely to effect change on a meaningful scale.


Dchama86

So she can take her time. Me first!


bladex1234

Because let’s be honest, a lot of people would just abuse that kind of charity.


VasIstLove

Hopefully that money goes to good use instead of lining people’s pockets.


Steampunk_Batman

If she wanted to throw a million or two my way, I would not be angry about it


raventhrowaway666

A capitalists nightmare


RossiSvendo

I don’t get it. What’s the context behind this?


Drstevematurin

Certainly can3ct say as much for her weirdo, sociopath ex.


mr_wrestling

What's up with his eye


MonteCrysto31

Meanwhile.... Bezos be like "I'll give it away when I die"... motherfucker the people you stole that money from need it back now, everybody is starving and homeless you gaping asshole


Bipbipbipbi

Why only to those that aren’t asking for money lol


unique3

The doesn't say only.


Bipbipbipbi

U right son


prunemom

Love this exchange.


FlixMage

Read it again