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Comment by Aushin | Hacker News Reader

I disagree with the characterization of people who think he could have used his means more effectively than this as "ungrateful, entitled assholes."

Are we required to celebrate everything a wealthy man does with his money as long as it's not overtly bad?

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No. You're free to ignore it. But please don't join the cavalcade of armchair philanthropists who think they can fix the world if only they could control enough of someone else's money.

> I disagree with the characterization of people who think he could have used his means more effectively than this as "ungrateful, entitled assholes."

Not everyone is, of course, but I imagine this is how it feels to be on the receiving end of those complaints.

> Are we required to celebrate everything a wealthy man does with his money as long as it's not overtly bad?

Of course not. But what I see is that the default reaction is almost always whining. I wonder how wealthy people cope with that - whatever they do, they get to read a ton of crap written about them. And particularly, Paul Allen does a lot of really useful stuff with his wealth.

In this case, I think it's because the general perception is that we're expected to praise him for this (Twitter announcement, press releases) and there is a backlash against that expectation.

Also I got downvoted for my first comment. I can't even imagine who took offense or why.

Me neither. I upvoted you to compensate.

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