this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
608 points (99.0% liked)

Just billionaire things

223 readers
675 users here now

Post things your (least) fav billionaire does.

This used to be the Elon Musk sub, but in an attempt to boost engagement, we have engaged a new pathway.

You can post anything related to billionaires here.

Tags: Tesla, paypal, spaceX, neuralink, The Boring Company.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 27 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

Man, just once, I'd like to see a billionaire that decides to spend enormous amounts of money on cool shit, without also being a terrible human being. Basically thinking of Musk, but the version of him that most people thought he was back when SpaceX was first making waves. That was all ruined by the fact that he turned out to be a Nazi.

Like, if this guy has $300 billion, I wish he would just get it in his head one day that he wants to see real high speed rail in the US and just throw $100 billion at it to force it to happen. Not because it's profitable, but because it's cool, and having $200 billion vs having $300 billion makes absolutely no difference to anything.

[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

No one who gets to have that enormous amount of money in the first place is a decent enough person to spend it in good will.

Any person with 100 million dollars is set for life. Having more than that is simply greed.

A person with the funding and genuine intent to have "the boring company" develop and execute the Hyperloop would have done it by now, instead of having it just be tubes with fuckin Teslas in them

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 7 hours ago

Unless you inherit it, and somehow beat the odds by not being a piece of shit like your parents

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

I think the Bezo’s Ex is doing that, but she didn’t (directly) choose to be a billionaire.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Once you get into a position like that, you're basically just surrounded by yes-men who tell you how great you are non-stop. It would take a very strong character to not go bonkers in that kind of situation. Add to that the fact that people who become billionaires will be pretty self obsessed to begin with and you have a recipe for disaster. Actually, the crusty old French philosophers had this shit figured out 250 years ago.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 7 points 10 hours ago

CEOs, most billionaires, they're psychopaths. That's why they're good at the job. Now we have a bunch of psychopaths controlling all the wealth in the world. If you look through history, they've always been the enemy.

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

True, but I feel like they are all missing out on the opportunity for some long term ego stroking. Just look at half the early skyscrapers built in the early 20th century; the Chrysler building for example is named after the man, not the company. Do it right and people could be praising the Brin Rail System for decades to come, and he'd be remembered forever for that. Instead he's just one more tech-douche, and that's all he'll ever be remembered as.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah but the people who built these skyscrapers during the gilded age weren't exactly paragons of virtue.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago

Doing something good for bad reasons is still doing something good.

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 hours ago

Not saying they were. Just saying that the self aggrandizement of assholes can result in cool shit for the rest of us. Instead we get boring assholes who just sit there jerking off to a number going up.