r/technology • u/DontFearTheCreaper • 1d ago

Social Media Tech CEOs who grinned behind Trump at inauguration lose billions in wake of tariffs

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tariff-bezos-musk-zuckerberg-b2727147.html
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u/composedmason 1d ago

I think about this a lot. If one of them solved world hunger, their workers would get mad they didn't get a raise. It they adopted every puppy about to be euthanized, their stock prices would decrease making their shareholders upset. Being evil has so far been the only rewarding part of being a billionaire. The only person I've seen do good is Bill Gates but look how history is treating him.

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u/Halealeakala 1d ago

Even Bill Gates only got to the position he is in now by being absolutely ruthless in his career with Microsoft. He was a notorious asshole for most of his life. The reputation he has now is due to a lot of people reconciling the charities with the person we all knew he was for decades.

No matter how much money he pours into good for the world, it can't undo some peoples' memory that he was a total dick.

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u/tractiontiresadvised 1d ago

Bill Gates basically took the turn-of-the-20th-century robber baron tactic. Many of the folks who universities and other big cultural institutions got named after (Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Leland Stanford) got their money through similarly ruthless means and then gave a bunch to charity later on in life.

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u/aguynamedv 1d ago

Although in fairness to Gates, getting the IBM deal with DOS was basically the entire reason Microsoft exists. DOS is basically the entire reason PCs as we know them exist now.

Naturally, if it hadn't been Gates, it would've been someone else. In any case, there was definitely a point where he was a young, inexperienced rich kid who got REALLY lucky.