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Comment by dgellow | Hacker News Reader

What a fucking depressing timeline. We could have built such a beautiful world instead

Today's billionaires aren't like yesterday's. They could be doing cool shit but they are just padding their own private real estate and stock portfolios. Yawn.

Why not make an epic bridge or tower with gargoyles on it? Why not a museum or park?

You can walk around Europe and see buildings from centuries ago. Who is building the things and spaces people in 2426 will marvel at?

> Who is building the things and spaces people in 2426 will marvel at?

Maybe they do not believe that there will be a human civilization in 2426.

Isn't it better that Bill Gates instead pumped huge amounts of money into philanthropy? Meanwhile SF has the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. A cathedral would be nice to look at but preventing malaria or helping sick kids seems preferable. In the past money couldn't have easily be deployed for good like this and helping fund cathedrals was likely done to increase the donors likelihood of getting into heaven.

But I guess George Lucas is a billionaire who has you covered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Museum_of_Narrative_Art

My understanding is that represents only a tiny fraction of their wealth. As I understand it, the idea is that it would be better if the billionaire's other frivolous spending was on something that would endure for future generations. (Setting aside the religious question of weather cathedrals are frivolous.)

Did prior generations of billionaires spend a higher percentage of their wealth on charity?

I also genuinely wonder how the ratio of "paper wealth" has changed. How much money would Elon or Jeff have of they actually sold their shares in their companies? How does that compare to John D Rockefeller or the Getties? I also wonder when those created their charities.

Who cares about the past. They should be building public infrastructure and do some things the rest of society enjoys instead of buying castles and islands surrounded by fences they visit once every 2 years

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