Re:Billionaires Build
by somethoughts on Friday December 04, 2020 @06:33PM
(#25309758)
As a follow-up thought - perhaps when Forbes makes its Billionaires List, instead of a basic sort ranked by on net worth, Forbes should incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance (a.k.a. Triple Bottom Line accounting) like factors similar to those starting to be used for Equity investing [1] and do a final ranking based on ESG x net worth.
And may be with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triarchy_%28theory%29
Re:Billionaires Build
by mightybyte on Friday December 04, 2020 @08:09PM
(#25310590)
> In general, leveraging technology capabilities seems less exploitive than leveraging human/environmental resources.
I see what you're getting at here, but I don't know that I completely buy it. Case in point: privacy. I guess it depends on how one defines exploitive.
Re:Billionaires Build
by somethoughts on Friday December 04, 2020 @08:25PM
(#25310690)
That's a good point - it should probably include exploiting "lack of regulation" which digital privacy could fall under broadly. I was generally thinking of "tech" in the semiconductor, computing aspect which while perhaps has some negative environmental impact and can develop monopolies; generally doesn't exploit other humans, etc..
Re:Billionaires Build
by whatshisface on Friday December 04, 2020 @11:35PM
(#25311783)
Absolutely any action could be framed as exploiting the lack of regulation against it, from getting milk at the grocery store to shipping electronic waste to third world countries for sketchy disposal. So that's not such an effective philosophical razor.
Oil and Gas billionaires leverage the fact that society hasn't figured out how to factor in negative environmental externalities. Consumer Staples billionaires leverage their supply chain monopolies and labor monopolies.
The original tech billionaires leveraged their early knowledge of computers/internet. Web 2.0/3.0 billionaires leverage the fact that society hasn't figured out how to appropriately regulate stuff that's similar but slightly different from their old school regulated counterparts (i.e. Uber, Airbnb).
In general, leveraging technology capabilities seems less exploitive than leveraging human/environmental resources/lack of regulation.