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Comment by big_youth | Hacker News Reader

>Billionaires are good for society. elon musk and jeff bezos are leading the way into space and that is huge for humanity.

Enough with the blanket statements, Sure bill gates is ok but just yesterday the front page had a story of the Sackler family and how they amassed billions by pumping the united states with opiates. They literally killed thousands and ruined the lives of millions, while destroying American society. Billionaries are people, some evil some good.

Also, the point of a government is to provide for it's citizens (with taxes) not to hope that in a 100years we can settle on other planets. And btw, in that scenario we would not be the ones who end up on Elysium. As much as SV programmers like to think they can be part the billionaire class you are not and will never be an oligarch.

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> the point of a government is to provide for it's citizens (with taxes)

I this this is objectively incorrect for the USA.

I thought it was Doctors who pumped the United States full of opiates.

I also thought the demand was a result of political policies that didn’t provide support for communities who were impoverished by the globalization of manufacturing and other industries.

Yes, the Sackler’s profited, and were irredeemably bad actors in this, but they are just one part of the story.

going further, if sackler family started funding space exploration.... are they now good?

For the people who worship at the feet of Bill Gates the answer is definitely yes.

> the point of a government is to provide for it's citizens (with taxes)

Isn't this a sort of oxymoron? The taxes come from other citizens. The ones who are paying a majority of the taxes are not provided for by the government. Government should seek to provide everyone equal protection of their rights.

Gates delayed the progress of the internet by about 5 years, intentionally. I know he's doing a lot of good lately, but let's also not forget the bad.

Who knows how many other good things he's delayed indirectly because he delayed the internet so much?

If not implementing things that later become important is immoral, we are all guilty.

You could just as easily say that Gates advanced the progress of the internet by driving the price of PCs down so that more people owned them.

It’s also reasonable to say that these decisions were a major reason why Microsoft lost their dominant position.

Gates is rich, but he lost his power over the software industry over this.

Drugs should be legal and people should be allowed to buy and sell them.

I would rather have the sackler family than the drug cartels.

You believe the point of govt is to provide for its citizens, that doesnt make it a fact.

Others believe the point of government is to protect us from each other while letting us make personal choices for good or ill.

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