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There’s no guarantee that Tim’s going to use his money for “good” causes, we’re entirely dependent on his good will.

He may go down the evangelical Christian path and fund a war of sex, abortions, gays, trans and people’s reproductive rights. That’s not even a hypothetical outcome, there’s plenty of millionaires and billionaires (like David Green) already funding that war.

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Tim funding a war on "gays" would be .... very surprising.

But also, there's no guarantee that _anyone_ including the government will use money for "good" causes. Bridges to nowhere, military adventurism, wars on drugs, personal enrichment of politicians and government employees, vanity projects of various sorts, the list of things governments mis-spend on is vast.

And of course we don't all agree on the relative merits of different causes.

True, but at least you can vote a government out of power. Same can’t be said for billionaires.

The practical distinction is often not there except for things that are so egregious there is a good chance billionaires would be crossing the boundaries of legality for doing them. But yes, government does have a slight edge on billionaires for accountability, I agree.

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