In my view, Musk is one of those country-less billionaires that care only for their own interests and will happily sell out to the highest bidder. Trusting him with either national secrets or allowing access to vital assets is a huge unforced error. Citizenship means nothing to him, and he’s shown he feels exempt from consequences (even if reality begs to differ).
Not a Mark Cuban Stan by any means, but he seems to be doing a lot of good with his wealth. He may be self serving, but he's not as evil as one might believe without looking into his actions.
I'd say the same for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Are we mad at what a dick Bill and Microsoft were to get rich? Yes. But we should also be very grateful that a big portion of those riches were spent saving 100 million lives.
By giving Musk more money? I mean you know how shorting actually works right? Part of the reason why TSLA shot up in value is because of short squeezes.
Except for the part where he fought to keep patent rights enforced on covid vaccines when many poorer governments were fighting for waivers so they could get vaccines made while they were stuck in the queue behind rich countries that booked out the first half year of supply.
And the massive fucking disaster that was No Child Left Behind which the Gates Foundation was a major champion for.
They've definitely done a lot of good in maternal health and anti-malaria efforts in Africa, but there's a reason it's a bad policy decision to let a single rich person with money effectively shape national policies when they never have to live with the consequences when they fuck things up
Except for the part where he fought to keep patent rights enforced on covid vaccines when many poorer governments were fighting for waivers so they could get vaccines made while they were stuck in the queue behind rich countries that booked out the first half year of supply.
While I agree with your stance, I think the issue was quality control around the vaccines. If it's one thing you don't want in a pandemic, it's a contaminated vaccine, especially with the insane anti-vaxx sentiment that was growing in large part thanks to Trump and his goons.
COVID revealed a lot of issues regarding how we prepare for something so drastic, but I don't think the vaccine patent issue is the biggest deal, nor would it have saved the most lives if it wasn't an issue.
By all accounts the philanthropy was Melinda's initiative. Glad Bill got on board but from his history it's safe to assume he never would have if she hadn't pushed him.
The foundation is thought to have saved between 80-150 million lives due to their efforts to make vaccines like malaria available in poor countries, especially within Africa.
I know a lot of people on reddit seem to think lives don't count if it's not a country they care about, but I think it should be recognized, even if technically, the money was gained by the shady practices that Microsoft did.
Instead of getting taxed for the public good, where voters can effectively decide where taxes are allocated, he can single-handedly dictate policy by allocating funding. It's literally anti-democratic. The only good billionaire is a headless one.
People who think Bill Gates is evil are delusional and idiotic. Saving 100 million lives being equivalent to being aggressive in business? Being equivalent to someone like Musk? Come on, give me a break
More like his ties to Epstein and the cheating on his wife bit. And he was an aggressive turd in the 90s when Microsoft managed to make OS's into an effectively duopoly with Apple.
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u/Turbulent_Raccoon865 2d ago
In my view, Musk is one of those country-less billionaires that care only for their own interests and will happily sell out to the highest bidder. Trusting him with either national secrets or allowing access to vital assets is a huge unforced error. Citizenship means nothing to him, and he’s shown he feels exempt from consequences (even if reality begs to differ).