I was gonna include a third option about how money is easier to achieve without considering the morality of your actions but that’s not really a philosophy as much as it is an objective fact.
Money doesn’t corrupt people; it’s more like a truth serum for the morally flexible. It’s not that money changes people; it just gives them a megaphone to broadcast their inner used car salesman.
Suddenly, those “creative accounting” skills you never knew you had emerge faster than a politician’s promises during election season. It’s like money has a magical power to turn “I would never” into “Well, just this once” quicker than you can say “offshore account.”
No one is perfect, and money reflects the not perfect side very well in many!
I don’t think money itself corrupts, but power does and power comes with money. Im currently reading a book “Human Kind” that argues that people are generally pretty decent, but that even a little bit of power almost always starts changing people’s behaviour, affecting their empathy, etc.
The weird thing is that people still believe in the trickle-down effect.
Musk is due to become the world’s first recognised trillionaire. Putin was probably the first.
Very rich people are not philanthropic in any way that is noticeable.
Some of the royal families in the Gulf are also thought to be trillionaires.
I would say “meaningful”. Billionaires can have a very noticeable effect with their philanthropy, while making essentially no sacrifice on their part. The Gates Foundation does very noticeable good, but Bill Gates isn’t giving of himself very much.
