this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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This is an interesting conundrum, actually. The big question at its core being:
Can you ever do enough good through philanthropy, so that it offsets the damage you had to do, in order to become a billionaire? Can even all the billionaires in the world do enough good with their money, to offset the damage done by a system, that allowed for them to become billionaires?
I, personally, don't think it is possible.
To give an actual answer: I think, the world would definitely be better, but unless those billionaires collectively used all the power their money provides, to do away with money and the possibility of billionaires altogether, I don't think it would amount to all that much.
I read a good post about this before, the summary was: a philanthropist billionaire helps causes specific to their discretion. While their rise to wealth has taken the toll from many victims, some dead directly because of it, their donations back may not even help the location they robbed it from.
You can picture United Health suddenly helping world hunger, it doesn't bring back all the people who died miserably from denied claims, or those who are still alive but became permanently disabled by lack of care.