[FRIAM] Patriotic Millionaires

[glen]

Obviously, I'm either procrastinating or unclear on how best to do actual work today because here is yet another thing I meant to talk about with someone, anyone, awhile back:

https://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/

A salon participant recently asked whether "greed" was our most nefarious trait as a species. It's a great question for sparking discussion. My answer was that the most nefarious trait of *all* species is myopia, the inability to reason over externalities, from pond scum to the Trust <https://raised-by-wolves.fandom.com/wiki/Trust>. But to de-emphasize what people think of as "greed", I said "Trying to ensure you have enough money to live out your life in relative comfort is not greed. Greed is, after acquiring billions of dollars, you feel the need to acquire more billions of dollars."

I found Patriotic Millionaires prior to that conversation. And it seems legit ... a set of outwardly greedy people who recognize limits to their greed ... a recognition that there's a spectrum of merit, some luck, some effort, some systemic infrastructure, etc. Overall, [m|b]illionaire philanthropy (and especially effective altruism) seem like jokes to me, very postmodern jokes. "Here, let me given you a billion dollars without fundamentally rewriting your genetic code." Pffft. Give anyone enough money and you'll corrupt them fundamentally, often against their will. Philanthropists know this. Effective Altruism is an oxymoron. You can't both be coercive and altruistic at the same time. >8^D

Anyway, I'd welcome any opinion on Patriotic Millionaires.

-- 
glen
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.