• maryjayjay@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Michael Jordan is a billionaire. Peter Jackson, McKenzie Scott, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg. Tiger Woods may be a bad husband, but that’s not how he made his money. Dolly Parton would be a billionaire if she hadn’t given away so much, she’s definitely earned a billion.

        • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Dolly parton is the only standout on that list. She’s NOT a billionaire because she gives back, and isn’t a scumbag that hoards more money than she needs to live an extremely comfortable life. The rest of the people on that list are very talented and have done great things for humanity, but the nature of capitalism seems to reward hyperuccessful entertainers more than it rewards hyperuccessful scholars and teachers, people who arguably contribute more to the human experience than entertainers do. Dolly gets it right by giving back as much as she can. The rest just take it in because capitalism tells them they deserve it.

          I’m not a Christian anymore but the parable of the Widow’s offering in (Mark 12:41-44) (Yes I had to look that up) holds forever true in my mind. The amount you give is a deeper reflection of your character when it’s compared in proportion to what you can afford to give, not in absolute terms of the value given. Dolly doesn’t go as far as to make her living situation worse, and neither do I. But if more of us tried just a little harder to give more than is easily comfortable, the world would be SO much better.

          And people who have a billion dollars they don’t need but also don’t give are making the world worse.

          • Decoy321@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Can confirm. I used to serve him at my old restaurant over a decade ago. He was always an asshole.

        • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          McKenzie Scott

          Is absolutely a good person, but all the cash she’s giving away is cash that her ex-husband Jeff Bezos didn’t give away, and continues to make through truly repulsive anti-worker practices.

          When you are a worker at Amazon, you literally have to redirect your bodily functions (either hold it or find a jug) to even begin to meet the inhuman production standards, and that’s before you get to all the safety violations, unionbusting, etc. Then there’s Amazon business model itself: the open embracing of counterfeit goods, refusal to police its own site adequately, fake reviews, dark patterns, etc.

          MacKenzie Scott is indeed a good person. We know this because she found life with one of the world’s worst people to be unsustainable and left, and then set about giving away all that dirty cash to make the world a better place. But she doesn’t belong on this billionaire list, IMO, as she is simply a divorcée with a payout and secondary to the guy who actually made the billions.

          • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Idk though, gold-digging the worlds most repulsive people to get half their worth just to donate what they never would seems like a noble endeavor. And swindling the billionaire class through romance, just to Robin Hood it away is a public service we should be praising.

            • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I wouldn’t disagree, lol. But MacKenzie Scott married Bezos in good faith years before he became the Lex Luthor of capitalism.

              Personality wise, type attracts type, and usually in that kind of marriage you have two highly motivated acquirers of wealth instead of just one. Which is to say that someone willing to marry for excessive wealth is probably not going to be the kind to give it all away after years of swallowing knob to get it, any more than Melania Trump is about to become a noted philanthropist or Anna Nicole Smith devoted her life to charity. (Nothing against Anna Nicole, just sayin.)