Can the moral billionaire please stand up?

The author calls out hired PR. Hired to present to the public the exact things the author sees as moral. And finally, talks about billionaires who they feel are "moral". Moral because they do [nothing but] good, or moral because they hire a PR firm to project a particular image?

Billionaires have indeed done good things with their wealth. I applaud that wholeheartedly. I strive to that goal as well, sans the fortune part.

But a billionaire cannot succeed without being amoral to _become_ said billionaire. A moral person would see the ever-expanding disparity between what they have and the have-nots. Billionaires had to go through the process of becoming a millionaire, multi-millionaire, hundreds-of-millions millionaire, and finally billionaire. Each step becoming less moral than the previous. This ignores who they must have stepped on to climb the money ladder.

Perhaps what this comes down to is capitalism is amoral at best. When it comes to money, someone is getting stepped on directly or indirectly. How rich do you need to be to stop stepping on the backs of others and live the life of leisure most of us could only dream of? Only the individual can make that decision for themselves, while the rest of us look on in disgust.

Unless you're a temporarily embarrassed billionaire, of course.