Counterpoint - if that money had been donated, I and everyone else on the planet might be living reasonably comfortably, without the looming spectre of climate change coming to kill us all.
Break it down:
If everyone on the planet had more or less the same base wealth, we'd all be equally comfortable.
Innovation and drive don't come from capital, people are independently innovative, so I imagine it reasonable to think some (not all, but enough) of our creature comforts would exist.
Without the drive for profits, these billionaires wouldn't be ferociously driving their businesses to be profitable, so those companies would be more sustainable and climate change less severe. Plus wealthier people disproportionately emit CO2.
psyche_2099 t1_iv4x1ae wrote
Reply to comment by Killingagency in [OC] Forbes 2022's Most Philanthropic US Billionaires by row64software
Counterpoint - if that money had been donated, I and everyone else on the planet might be living reasonably comfortably, without the looming spectre of climate change coming to kill us all.
Break it down:
If everyone on the planet had more or less the same base wealth, we'd all be equally comfortable.
Innovation and drive don't come from capital, people are independently innovative, so I imagine it reasonable to think some (not all, but enough) of our creature comforts would exist.
Without the drive for profits, these billionaires wouldn't be ferociously driving their businesses to be profitable, so those companies would be more sustainable and climate change less severe. Plus wealthier people disproportionately emit CO2.