One of the best things I read was an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie called The Gospel of Wealth. It makes the case that the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society, a radical idea at the time that laid the groundwork for philanthropy as we know it today.
In the essay’s most famous line, Carnegie argues that “the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” I have spent a lot of time thinking about that quote lately. People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that “he died rich” will not be one of them.
And he’ll still be a billionaire. And he got that money by suppressing the world with proprietary software. He’s single handedly helped hold humanity back. I don’t care the good he’s done as it’s built on the back of all the harm he’s done.
Beat me to it. Anand Giridharadas has spoken on the general scam of billionaires white-washing their legacies like this… their philanthropy seldom approaches, much less exceeds, the harm they did in getting so rich in the first place.
The fact that he collected billions in the first place is the problem. He should have been charging consumers less, and paying his workers more. He never should have accumulated his obscene wealth to begin with.
More lies at 11.
The irs accepts donations.
He’s already been claiming he would for the last 15. It was too little to late back then. He either needs to get busy with it or shut up about it.
Dibs
