Greed Is Good—Even if It Kills Us All? (insurance, buy, companies)
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This is an interesting piece by Ali Breland, looking at the tech-mogul types who buy into effective accelerationism.
Meet the Silicon Valley CEOs Who Say Greed Is Good—Even if It Kills Us All
“Effective accelerationism” wracked OpenAI. That’s just the beginning.
While effective altruists claim to be ultimately motivated by charitable giving, accelerationists unequivocally want every dollar of tech money plowed back into tech companies.
Yet for all of the e/acc talk about AI saving the world, the role of humans in the world it anticipates is left unresolved.
The people drawn to e/acc like it because it doesn’t prescribe any actions or metrics for achieving a better world. It is outcome-neutral; whatever future our tech overlords have in store for us is the right one. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...celerationism/
This is an interesting piece by Ali Breland, looking at the tech-mogul types who buy into effective accelerationism.
Meet the Silicon Valley CEOs Who Say Greed Is Good—Even if It Kills Us All
“Effective accelerationism” wracked OpenAI. That’s just the beginning.
While effective altruists claim to be ultimately motivated by charitable giving, accelerationists unequivocally want every dollar of tech money plowed back into tech companies.
Yet for all of the e/acc talk about AI saving the world, the role of humans in the world it anticipates is left unresolved.
The people drawn to e/acc like it because it doesn’t prescribe any actions or metrics for achieving a better world. It is outcome-neutral; whatever future our tech overlords have in store for us is the right one. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...celerationism/
The logical rubric isn't really new. The idea that charitable giving especially giving to poor people slows productivity, encourages dependency, weakens recipients has been acknowledged and even studied by economists and sociologists for a couple of hundred years.
What's new is many, often way left of center, business types are jumping on the train.
1. We flat out know via hundreds of animal studies to well proctored surveys and studies of real people.......long term handouts change recipient behavior for the worse. The active become lazy. The lazy become even lazier. The very lazy become near helpless.
2. We also know that monies and other transfers to the poor result in purchases of things like food, lottery tickets, cigarettes, gas, towels, underwear, socks etc. These things may be important in one sense. However, the purchases of said items drive very, very little productivity enhancing investment. Like it or not, and I've got a lot of beefs with tech companies per se, tech investment drives productivity directly and indirectly.
3. The yield of all this is we should not let the needy starve. We should instead as our most successful Euro pals do in these situations do all possible to make sure people use charity (public and private) in the short term not as lifetime crutch.
4. It's also worth noting Americans and American companies are by far and away - both nominally and proportionally - the most giving people in the world by far there really is no second place.
4.1. Redirecting some of that private side charity money back into not just tech but medicine, insurance, banking, education whatever would be not only smart it'd pay off significantly in ways positive to all.
Tech companies keeping the money they made is going to kill us?
Then there's this:
Quote:
Child and maternal mortality, declining life expectancy, transit snarls, homelessness, social inequality, and many other problems already have solutions that have been successfully implemented.
The idea being that we just need to throw more money at these problems and they'll go away, despite all the money that's already been thrown at them.
Listen to tech podcasts where they are just talking among themselves.
Where do they learn to be so selfish and nasty??
Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg and a host of others.....just evil.
it is not up to big tech to fix the issues of society. They can (and do) donate as they wish. Jobs died over a decade ago and grew up very poor - he donated through apple. Zuckerberg has pledged to donate 99% of his worth. Gates has been one of the biggest donors for many years. Doesn't seem so selfish to me but even if they were - why should they donate? Even when they do, you call them evil because it is not what you think they should.
The EVIL is the politicians that pander to the poor while not making it so they can escape its grasp. Giving them just enough to live without the means or push needed to escape.
- it is not up to big tech to fix the issues of society. They can (and do) donate as they wish. Jobs died over a decade ago and grew up very poor - he donated through apple. Zuckerberg has pledged to donate 99% of his worth. Gates has been one of the biggest donors for many years. Doesn't seem so selfish to me but even if they were - why should they donate? Even when they do, you call them evil because it is not what you think they should.
The EVIL is the politicians that pander to the poor while not making it so they can escape its grasp. Giving them just enough to live without the means or push needed to escape.
now you ruined their whole narrative with facts …shame on you
Last edited by Lizap; 01-12-2024 at 01:14 PM..
Reason: Deleted comment from prior poster
it is not up to big tech to fix the issues of society. They can (and do) donate as they wish. Jobs died over a decade ago and grew up very poor - he donated through apple. Zuckerberg has pledged to donate 99% of his worth. Gates has been one of the biggest donors for many years. Doesn't seem so selfish to me but even if they were - why should they donate? Even when they do, you call them evil because it is not what you think they should..........................
.
Hitler grew up poor. Does that give him a pass for his evil acts??
Read Jobs biography. He was impressed that the Chinese government could ORDER their workers to work until they fixed a mistake that Jobs made!!! He wished that he could do that in America. I think that's EVIL.
Zukerberg makes $40/year per individual selling private information to the corporations. I never had a Facebook or had anything to do with META. They track me, because somebody let Facebook have their phone contact list. I don't know what information META is selling about me. If the government were doing what META is doing without a court order it would be illegal. I think that's EVIL.
Gates destroyed tech innovation in this country. A ruthless businessman. The joke is God created Bill Gates because he was tired of all the hate directed towards Rockefeller. He has a foundation too!! Oh, and Bill Gates and his good friend Epstein?? I think that is EVIL.
Donating money for your favorite causes is fine. That means you pay less in Federal taxes. That does not make you a good person. It just means you want to change the world in your likeness and you want a tax subsidy to do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107
now you ruined their whole narrative with facts …shame on you
What facts?? Again, Rockefeller a good person?? If he was so good, why did the Federal government break up his monopoly??
Oh, he set up the richest foundation in world at the time.
Again, so did Gates, and he and Epstein were buddies. Are foundations a way to buy indulgences just like the Catholic Church in the middle ages??
Why do all these rich folks have "public relations" folks to make them LOOK good??
Hitler grew up poor. Does that give him a pass for his evil acts??
Read Jobs biography. He was impressed that the Chinese government could ORDER their workers to work until they fixed a mistake that Jobs made!!! He wished that he could do that in America. I think that's EVIL.
Zukerberg makes $40/year per individual selling private information to the corporations. I never had a Facebook or had anything to do with META. They track me, because somebody let Facebook have their phone contact list. I don't know what information META is selling about me. If the government were doing what META is doing without a court order it would be illegal. I think that's EVIL.
Gates destroyed tech innovation in this country. A ruthless businessman. The joke is God created Bill Gates because he was tired of all the hate directed towards Rockefeller. He has a foundation too!! Oh, and Bill Gates and his good friend Epstein?? I think that is EVIL.
Donating money for your favorite causes is fine. That means you pay less in Federal taxes. That does not make you a good person. It just means you want to change the world in your likeness and you want a tax subsidy to do it.
What facts?? Again, Rockefeller a good person?? If he was so good, why did the Federal government break up his monopoly??
Oh, he set up the richest foundation in world at the time.
Again, so did Gates, and he and Epstein were buddies. Are foundations a way to buy indulgences just like the Catholic Church in the middle ages??
Why do all these rich folks have "public relations" folks to make them LOOK good??
Could be they want to put a thumb on the scale??
Again, the rich tech guys donate a lot but they get to donate to what they want - it is NOT up to them to fix society issues and NOT up to you to say what they donate to. Also a donation only gives a tax break on the donation - that is money they are giving to others, why do you think they should pay taxes on it also - that would essentially be taxing the charity.
Equating tech guys with Hitler? That is silly - not the same thing. And a comment by Jobs makes him evil? Jobs donated anonymously but now you seem to criticize him for that. Donate your "wealth" if that is what you want but do not insist others "must" do your bidding. Most really could care less what you think is evil, thinking someone else is evil does not make someone a good person, only tedious because it sounds more like jealousy.
Equating tech guys with Hitler? That is silly - not the same thing.
It's simply Goodwin's Law - "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."
No one yet considers the full "greed is good" quote from the movie Wall Street, delivered by antagonist Gordon Gekko: "The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of it's forms - greed for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you."
In the movie, Gordon Gekko is sentenced to Federal Prison for insider trading.
Last edited by Johnny Wadd; 01-15-2024 at 10:01 AM..
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