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0 pointslatexr1y ago0 comments

> What do you do with a a lot of money past a point?

Feed the hungry. House the homeless. Give away money unconditionally to those in need. Build hospitals in poor countries. Fight disinformation on crucial topics (such as climate change). Provide disaster relief. Not build more power hungry technology that exacerbates our current problems.

Do literally anything positive for another person, that does not harm others.

The list is pretty big when one isn’t selfish; there’s no law forcing anyone to build space agencies.

A lack of imagination is not an excuse.

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5 comments · 1 top-level

pj_mukh1y ago· 4 in thread

"Feed the hungry. House the homeless"

Funnel $10B in housing to Los Angeles and you'll build less than 100 units of housing, because the inflationary push of that money would balloon the cost of per unit housing. I don't want to imagine the effect of that on middle class housing.

Funnel $10B of food to xyz famine region and you've undercut local farmers for generations. Happens all the time [1]. And that's assuming you can get the aid past local corruption.

These problems aren't as simple as people assume, and I'm low-key happy young naive Billionaire's are avoiding these issues instead of trying to throw their weight around.

FWIW: Sam's already funneled a bunch of money into green energy production[2].

[1]: https://haitisolidarity.net/in-the-news/how-the-united-state...

[2]: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/25/sam-altman-backed-nuclear-st...

exceptione1y ago

> Funnel $10B in housing to Los Angeles and you'll build less than 100 units of housing, because the inflationary push of that money would balloon the cost of per unit housing. I don't want to imagine the effect of that on middle class housing.

Doesn't make sense to me. An uptick in construction work will not be an inflation balloon. More disposable income doesn't mean 1:1 more spending.

If you build a lot of (social) housing, you put at worst a lot of people a roof above their head.

Families having less financial stress might lower crime rate and improve children school scores. They might save to start businesses or find their other talents.

For some, this might be a downside tough. It makes workers more educated, healthier, more stable, less desperate and less dependent on bosses, plus they might be less angry so politically less exploitable too.

pj_mukh1y ago

"An uptick in construction work will not be an inflation balloon. "

There's a massive shortage in construction workers [1], so yes there will be? The few construction workers we do have can demand higher wages (yay!) but then will they be outbidding other mid-income folks for housing with those increased wages? Sounds like an inflation spiral to me.

My statement wasn't against social housing, I love social housing. We just haven't cracked the code in scaling housing (and subsequent maintenance) yet. And the problem is about 80% political will, billionaire cash is useless here.

[1]: https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-2024-constr...

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latexrOP1y ago

I didn’t say “do these things inefficiently”. If we know better, we can do better. It’s like if I said “use the money to fix the potholes in this road” and you replied “but if you shove all that asphalt in the same hole, it will create a mound that stops cars from going through”. Yeah, don’t dump everything in the same place without thinking.

Start by collaborating with organisations which are entrenched in studying these issues and the impact of the solutions. If you have the money you can pay them to help and guide the effort, don’t act like if you know everything.

pj_mukh1y ago

Yes this has basically been the modus operandi of the gates foundation and it took them 10 years to make a dent on Malaria. They still have no clue how to “efficiently” reduce famines.

They won’t touch American housing problems with a 10ft pole. That should tell you something.

Go to Berkeley, tell them a Billionaire wants to build housing for the homeless in their neighborhood. See what happens.

It’s a hard pill to swallow but the best thing billionaires can do is let us tax them and then butt out go fly rockets. The political problems is upto the rest of us.

2 more replies

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

5 comments · 1 top-level

pj_mukh1y ago· 4 in thread

"Feed the hungry. House the homeless"

Funnel $10B of food to xyz famine region and you've undercut local farmers for generations. Happens all the time [1]. And that's assuming you can get the aid past local corruption.

These problems aren't as simple as people assume, and I'm low-key happy young naive Billionaire's are avoiding these issues instead of trying to throw their weight around.

FWIW: Sam's already funneled a bunch of money into green energy production[2].

[1]: https://haitisolidarity.net/in-the-news/how-the-united-state...

[2]: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/25/sam-altman-backed-nuclear-st...

exceptione1y ago

Doesn't make sense to me. An uptick in construction work will not be an inflation balloon. More disposable income doesn't mean 1:1 more spending.

If you build a lot of (social) housing, you put at worst a lot of people a roof above their head.

Families having less financial stress might lower crime rate and improve children school scores. They might save to start businesses or find their other talents.

pj_mukh1y ago

"An uptick in construction work will not be an inflation balloon. "

[1]: https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-2024-constr...

1 more reply

latexrOP1y ago

pj_mukh1y ago

Yes this has basically been the modus operandi of the gates foundation and it took them 10 years to make a dent on Malaria. They still have no clue how to “efficiently” reduce famines.

They won’t touch American housing problems with a 10ft pole. That should tell you something.

Go to Berkeley, tell them a Billionaire wants to build housing for the homeless in their neighborhood. See what happens.

It’s a hard pill to swallow but the best thing billionaires can do is let us tax them and then butt out go fly rockets. The political problems is upto the rest of us.

2 more replies

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse