Larry Ellison abruptly pulls rug from under philanthropy foundation after two years to 'focus on COVID-19 fight' Larry Ellison's generous philanthropy is as famous as his bulging $78.2bn net worth and mahogany complexion. Well, almost. Except in these uncertain times, the Oracle CTO and founder has struggled to know where best to focus his do-goodery. According to news outlet Vox, two years' work on the Larry Ellison Foundation, his …
I remember a documentary. Bill gates was talking about how he's fighting malaria and helping with sanitation in the developing world.
Sergey Brin mentioned how he's trying to develop tech so everyone can access the internet regardless of wealth.
Larry Ellison showed the presenter how many expensive things he has, how much his things are worth, where he got his rare stuff from and what junk he was planning to buy next.
The difference between Ellison and Gates is that Gates was an opportunist who became a philanthropist who is actually making a difference in this world.
Whereas Ellison is just an asshole who does the minimum for his image but is way more interested in his money.
I don't think we can call a rich bloke out for simply being minted.
Ellison is simply a person who has access to more money than you and me and possibly the UK. It does not matter. When you get to numbers like that, then value ceases to be an issue. There is no value any more. There is simply a number.
The problem is neither, it is that, anyone, or any organisation, is allowed to rentier * accumulate such obscene sums of currency; more so than some significant governments, allowing them dangerous private power
* Corporate Capitalism is the embodiment of rentierism, for its workers and society.
Personal donations by the obscenely rich are in no way adequate compensation, and can be abused like Gates and Soros have been doing, without classical virtue checks to limit damage, or even for nefarious purposes.
This.
In the Age of Kings, when they limited the power of over-mighty subjects they were accused of lopping down the tallest poppies, but they were then acting in the interests of their subjects as well as themselves.
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Another perspective on Billy-Boy's fabulous generosity --- which just touches on the fact the capital never seems to go down even as he gives massively to pharmaceuticals that other branches of his empire are invested in:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/bill-gates-foundation-philanthropy/
He saves more in taxes by giving than most people will ever have in their bank account in a lifetime *, and by depriving the State of the disposal of such monies evolves NGOs into parallel states.
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Larry flies straight compared to Gates.
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* $4 billion by Gates' own estimate.
Give the guy a break.
Eradicating Malaria will save millions of lives and help lift the third world out of poverty.
If the money went on taxes it would likely be spent on giving serious military kit to untrained police in the name of "Homeland Security".
Besides after you first couple of million the amount of tax you pay (or not) is entirely up to you and your accountants -- just ask Donald Trump.
By your own reasoning then, there is every reason to call him out. He could contribute a vast amount of money to improving the lives of others, without making any difference to his own, as he would still have the same 'value', his personal wealth being 'just being a number'.
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