Let’s be really clear here… Clovis was defending basically just Bill Gates from the charge of being a stone sociopath. That’s as far as he went. He didn’t defend Gates saying he’d have a hard time voting for Warren over Trump… he didn’t defend the system that made Gates absurdly richer than any human has any need to be. He didn’t do any of that.
This whole thread is one absurdly long straw man argument where a bunch of you rage against the extremes of modern capitalism. Which I don’t think anybody sane is even disagreeing with you on.
And a bunch of you are starting to become caricatures of yourselves in your rage. And a bunch of you are trying to hold the billionaires themselves personally responsible for the situation… which I find super suspect because I don’t even really fully believe in free will. Billionaires are a government policy failure. Either you believe that or you don’t. Personally I believe it, and I simultaneously believe that Bill Gates is the best case scenario for a billionaire so he’s hardly the right guy to take shots at. There are lots of better candidates.
As to him giving away all his money and getting richer it’s his fault now that the stock market has been on a 10 year bull run and he has more money than he can figure out how to give away to start with? I’m sorry but you guys are taking shots at a guy who has funded a bunch of stuff that is probably going to actually make a real difference. In the case of nuclear power probably a much bigger difference than the value of his total fortune wrt addressing climate change.
I don’t want to end up in the same hole as Clovis with you guys… Bill Gates is no angel and he doesn’t need me to defend him, and the system that made him rich is utterly corrupt. I agree that he was incredibly ruthless in business and I agree that his entire business was the result of a largely government granted monopoly. I also agree that him saying he’d even consider voting for Trump over Warren is indefensible. Particularly since Trump single handedly torpedoed him testing his new nuclear tech in China which probably set back safe clean carbon neutral power by 5+ years.
But I’m also saying that of all the economic tumors we call billionaires he’s the best case scenario. Full stop. Pick a different target, there are literally 1000+ to choose from and most of them are basically cartoon villains lol. A few of them are the villains from Captain Planet ffs.