I’d truly be interested to know what’s the biggest check Musk could write, without selling stock or property, without leveraging anything, and without borrowing for foreign investors. I’d bet it’s a small, small fraction of his total estimated wealth (and far more than I’ll make in my lifetime).
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Gates hasn’t done those specific things, but the Gates Foundation is currently spending $7 billion PER YEAR on charitable causes similar to the legitimate ones in evadrepus’s post. Here’s what Bill and Melinda funded last year: Annual Report 2022 | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Note that they’re focused on sustained projects that can have long-term impacts. You can’t actually “solve world hunger” by simply writing a check for $7 billion. And funding an existing organization’s entire budget for a year (or even a decade) is actually a lot less impactful in the long term than funding specific projects for the entire duration of the project.
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It is good that none of them have tried to become Iron Man or Batman because those are fantasy charcters originally invented to sell comic books to children. They are not models to follow.
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After being X-ed out, he was given a free vacation to a very exclusive seaside resort. He can be reached at his new address of REDACTED
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If I were the original owner, I would be so incandescent with rage that I’d probably have a heart attack or stroke.
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Part of it is that the money isn’t actually in a bank account sitting there. Much of Musk’s Twitter foray was financed by bank loans underwritten by his Tesla and SpaceX stock. And even when it is more liquid, like with Gates, the choices about what gets solved and what doesn’t are driven by the whims of a billionaire, however benevolent they might be.
I’m not writing this as a defense of capitalism or billionaires not doing things. The solution is to tax wealth appropriately and ensure that bureaucratic corruption or incompetence doesn’t slow the money from getting to the people who can do good with it (and ensuring those priorities are hashed out in a democratic process that is equally accessible to everyone).
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Given Bill’s long, likely criminal history “working” with Jeffrey Epstein, a lot of his charitable work seems like it may be a modern version of the Catholic Church’s old “indulgences” system where people could buy forgiveness and absolution (even preemptively) for a variety of sins, given a sufficient charitable contribution. Maybe that’s what allowed him to sleep at night, anyway.
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The remaining $20bn would supply free healthcare to every American, probably for a decade. Assuming sensible single payer rates like other countries have, and not the insane hospital-negotiated fake rates that America uses for the uninsured.
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… remember he still wants to be Emperor of Mars
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I can’t decide whether they thought that the offer to meet with management would be attractive; or whether it was intended to be interpreted as a reason to comply quietly to keep that from happening.
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The reason I didn’t put that up is the only reliable metric I could find is using current cost numbers, which means it’s an astronomical amount.
But you’re absolutely right.
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He also profits from the Foundation’s investments financially.
I can’t help but see this sort of interaction echoed many times in the workplace.
Stuff just happens to an Asian co-worker, Asian co-worker shrugs and says, “I guess that’s how it goes.”
Management fuck over Asian workers more readily because they know we don’t like raising hell about injustices.
@e was taken easily because it was suspended and under limbo. There was another single letter handle where the owner was given a cash compensation of some sort.
At my old work place, white dude who came in after me got 6 month severance. Me, laid off a month later, 2 weeks. He returned to the company after his 6 month hike across the country.
And what the fuck on the @x123456789… ? Whatever worker executed this takeover just swiped his paws across the number row and added more digits.
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The UK’s NHS spends on the order of £150bn/year (a little over US$190bn/year) to provide statutory healthcare for nearly 70 million people. There is widespread belief that this is not enough. Given this, it is reasonable to assume that with almost five times as many people in the USA, $20bn won’t get you very far. Free healthcare for a decade sounds a bit optimistic.
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Does this mean we can push to make “tweet” a generic term across any Twitter-like social media service, now that X decided to throw away the social capital it built upon the term?
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Heretic! I thought we, under the genius guidance of Market Pope Musk X, drove your kind from the Free Marketplace of Ideas last Quarter.
Such abominations have surely been drawn by all this criticism of His Innovativness Musk X. St Friedman protect us from this taint!
The Market is my Shepard; I shall want.
Want maketh a signal of demand, it leadeth me to fair value.
It maketh market equilibrium, guided by the righteous invisible hand in Smith’s name.
Yea, though I operate in the shadow of the Death Valley Curve.
I fear not the red, for the VCs are with me…
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Tell me again how the muskrat is a proponent of free speech??
You can have anything you want…until a billionaire wants it
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When a social media platform becomes a full-bore fascist hellhole of bigotry, misogyny, misinformation and scammery then is it really necessary to wait for a “suitable alternative” before deciding it’s time to go?
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