What is wrong with farm country?

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freya

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Peace
Why would a billionaire ever be for the common man?

I had a friend who died a little over a year ago. He was a billionaire who came from poverty. One of his life's missions was to help out the common man and he started a couple of companies to do so. He was truly a kind-hearted caring man but he was also one in a billion. There are some good people who are extremely wealthy. I think wealth is either going to bring out the good or bad in anyone, depending on how they are fundamentally.

The Gates Foundation bases donations on the likelihood of a charity to provide the help it promises by using logarithms instead of emotional appeal. Charities which only exist as tax shelters aren't going to receive funding nor are the ones who use those photos of sad dejected looking children who posed that way for candy. I don't know Bill or Melinda Gates but I understand a little about how they run their organization and it seems to be solid. I heard that they were also promoting chicken raising in other countries, a little egg/chick is small and if feed it will provide eggs and meat. Seems like a sound plan along the philosophy of teach a person to fish rather than give him a fish. And I think there is some kind of movement to limit population as well to make life better for everyone. If memory serves correctly several other billionaires are also leaving their money to the same causes...maybe through the Gates Foundation?

But you are talking about self made billionaires. Your friend and Bill Gates were not born into money and therefore were exposed to how normal people lived. They are therefore able to empathize with people and are also aware of the great deal of luck that they had and might even feel guilty because they have made it but people who are like them have not. They still see people as people not as cogs in a machine that make them money.

That is the fundamental difference between a “billionaire” like Rump and someone who was self made and does a lot of charity work.

yep, I noticed that in my work life. I worked for a couple of large-ish, in a local way, companies. Both had been built from the ground up by the older guys. Even though, business-wise, the older ones were sharks, they also had very obvious empathy and the common touch. Along come their sons, raised with the silver spoons, and they were put in charge and were total jerks. Both entitled, full of themselves and mean to their employees

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mistress rotwang
But you are talking about self made billionaires. Your friend and Bill Gates were not born into money and therefore were exposed to how normal people lived. They are therefore able to empathize with people and are also aware of the great deal of luck that they had and might even feel guilty because they have made it but people who are like them have not. They still see people as people not as cogs in a machine that make them money.

That is the fundamental difference between a “billionaire” like Rump and someone who was self made and does a lot of charity work.

That completely makes sense! Thanks for saying it. I've heard some awful stories about generational wealth belonging to exclusive country clubs and not tipping their waitstaff. Apparently it is widespread.

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reeniebessagain
yep, I noticed that in my work life. I worked for a couple of large-ish, in a local way, companies. Both had been built from the ground up by the older guys. Even though, business-wise, the older ones were sharks, they also had very obvious empathy and the common touch. Along come their sons, raised with the silver spoons, and they were put in charge and were total jerks. Both entitled, full of themselves and mean to their employees

I had a pair of professors in college who were self made business men (one was from the rust belt and the other immigrated to the US as a child). They were both some of the kindest people you would ever meet unless thier business was concerned. One of them was really funny because he had a several year old Maserati (I think) and every year he would get it repainted because he was bored with the color. He was like, I could afford to buy a new one but this one is still good and I am going to drive it until the wheels fall off. He was my mentor when I went to college, and I am in my field of engineering because of him (he also accessorized his swearpants with coffee stains and had a formal sweatshirt- he was a bit of a character). Both of these guys were incredibly careful to make sure that they didn’t have entitled kids. There was another guy in the college town who inherited his dad’s rental properties and owned 2 of the 4 restaurants in the town who was also incredibly down to earth (but that was because he grew up washing dishes and waiting tables for his dad). So it seems like a lot of care must be taken for a lot of these people to not have entitled offspring.

I don’t have a problem with rich people that worked for thier money. They deserve it, and I don’t begrudge them the occasional trashy display of wealth (like when Bill Gates took that picture where he was posing with a pile of cash) because I would probably do the same thing. But I do have a problem with people who have never worked a day in their life being trashy assholes because they haven’t earned it.