Least evil of the top 50 American billionaires

Susanne Klatten's family were Nazis, but she seems like a standard run-of-the-mill moderate conservative

Theo Albrecht served in the German army in WW2. However he also is the Trader Joe's guy, so he has cheap prepared foods and discounted imported cheese and chocolate to weigh against fighting for Hitler

Laurene Powell Jobs - Steve was a sociopath but relatively light in the evil department compared to a bunch of these and I'd guess she hasn't actively done much with what she inherited

Though I don't know anything about their choices in life, politics, or actions, it's tempting to vote for one of the Mars heirs just on "Source of wealth: candy." Brother Forrest it seems died last year. Of them all I would pick his successor, Victoria B. Mars, who seems like a rare old-school heiress-philanthropist, donating to land conservancies and things like that.

Realistically I think I have to go Gates, who could do so much more, but is at least doing way more than probably most of these rich assholes put together.

Neither of the Mas lives in the Western Hemisphere AFAICT.

lol thanks poll for reminding me of this

Vanessa Williams Knows Too Much: DC13

The man behind the discount empire is the least likely to provide an explanation. Dieter Schwarz, whose personal fortune was in 2013 estimated to be €19.6bn, is not just the 24th richest person on the planet, but also one of the most secretive. Only two photographs of the Swabian 74-year-old remain in circulation, one in black and white.

Legend has it that he once turned down a medal for entrepreneurial achievement from the state of Baden-Württemberg because he did not want to be photographed. Schwarz took over the Schwarz & Lidl discount store after his father Josef's death in 1977 and bought the naming rights from co-owner Ludwig Lidl, a retired schoolteacher, soon after. Calling his chain Schwarz-Markt, meaning "black market", was never a realistic option.

Source of wealth: beer

seems kind of pure

like Adolph Coors, eh?

I doubt any of the Americans on the list would qualify as least evil

"Adolph Coors committed suicide at the age of 82 years on June 5, 1929, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, when he jumped to his death from the window of the Cavalier Hotel. He was said to have been depressed due to Prohibition adversely affecting his business, but newspaper accounts varied at the time."

I never knew about this little interesting titbit.

Early in 1868, he came to the United States as an undocumented stowaway.[ 1 ]

i think it would be cool if all of them died and we took their money but thats just me :/

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Paul Allen in a walk imo

I think the most evil thing he's done is invest in Ticketmaster, and that was in 1993

I think it would be cool if all of them died and we took their money but thats just me :/

― nice cage (m bison), Saturday, March 25, 2017 8:48 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTFM

The existence of billionaires is an obscenity.

tempted to vote gates b/c everyone else i've heard on this list is terrible but i assume there's something awful about him i'm forgetting

The Gates Foundation pushes charter schools, which are evil

voted Sheldon Adelson for his warm personality

I thought the president was the richest man in the world.

isn't Warren Buffett an aight dude?

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/warren-buffett-s-berkshire-hathaway-buys-stake-in-monsanto/article_fc80afbc-b9f4-51ca-859b-0adc69adf43a.html

Buffett stated that he only paid 19% of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes (due to their source as dividends and capital gains, although the figure excluded the taxes on that income paid by the corporations that provided it), while his employees paid 33% of theirs, despite making much less money.[158] “How can this be fair?” Buffett asked, regarding how little he pays in taxes compared to his employees. "How can this be right?" He also added, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."[159][160] After Donald Trump accused him of taking "massive deductions," Buffett countered, "I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward."[161]
Buffett favors the inheritance tax, saying that repealing it would be like "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics".[162] In 2007, Buffett testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy.[163] Some critics argued that Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) has a personal interest in the continuation of the estate tax, since Berkshire Hathaway benefited from the estate tax in past business dealings and had developed and marketed insurance policies to protect policy holders against future estate tax payments.[164] Buffett believes government should not be in the business of gambling, or legalizing casinos, calling it a tax on ignorance

Some of those billionnaires are not american.

There's some deep moral calculus of where the money came from, where it's going, and who these people really are imo

I mean, fifteen or twenty years ago people working in software would grumble under their breath that Bill Gates would have to cure cancer or something to overwhelm the shady business shit Microsoft would pull, but here we are in 2017 with Gates personally involved with some initiatives that are doing actual good and I don't give a shit about his business career so much anymore.

I guess the point is I know who I really dislike on this list but can't make too many judgments beyond that

can't believe how big Zara is

"I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward."

oooh burn! Take that you "Net Operating Loser"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

As long as we remember that "least evil" is still "evil".

if we agree that "wealth" is evil (which tbf I do)

capitalism is a pyramid scheme et al

I'm quitting ILX again

I'm hoping that the three people who voted for Adelson were doing it for the lolz.

so who do we think of this list is least evil now

answer: NONE OF THEM

How the hell did Sheldon Adelson get three votes?

I had the same question. If one only looked from his support for Israel, well, its specifically for Likudnik politics that bring international pariah status. In US politics, he's an unmitigated disaster.

How the hell does George Soros only have 1 vote? He did more than any other private individual to undermine communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe in the 80s.

answer: NONE OF THEM

Paul Allen's family have dismantled most of the arts orgs that he funded since he died

I also have kind words for Ray Dalio, who like Gates and Buffett is pledged to give away most of his wealth, and continues to put out messages like this.

did something bad come out about Gates to prompt this revive

not that I'm in favour of billionaires under any circumstances but

lol, just opened this thread and was about to write milo's post word-for-word.

But also Neanderthal's. The least evil billionaire is the billionaire actively working to divest his wealth such that he's no longer a billionaire. Which, I suspect, describes not one of these fine folks.

Charlie Munger did not crack this top 50 but this interview about his prison-dorm design is so good

https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15378-exclusive-interview-with-billionaire-charlie-munger-on-controversial-ucsb-dorm

lol this poll winner would definitely be different today

Definitely one of the most dated polls I’ve seen on here. Musk and Bezos not even on the list.

Oh wait I see Bezos now.

Most desirable fatal disease up next

some of the people on the list get the name of their corporation but some just get "candy" and "ball bearings" which makes it sound like they just have the most candy or ball bearings

49. Stefan Quandt; Net Worth: $15.6 B; Source of wealth: BMW
39. Georg Schaeffler; Net Worth: $18.1 B; Source of wealth: ball bearings
29. John Mars; Net Worth: $23.4 B; Source of wealth: candy
28. Jacqueline Mars; Net Worth: $23.4 B; Source of wealth: candy
27. Forrest Mars; Net Worth: $23.4 B; Source of wealth: candy
13. Sergey Brin; Net Worth: $34.4 B; Source of wealth: Google

Also, before anyone brings it up, Musk is an American citizen and his companies operate here.

I don't think Bezos or Musk could ever qualify as 'least evil', regardless.

ball bearing riches

Definitely not, although I have to wonder if Soros would still get just one vote.

ma huateng also known as "pony ma" is not american. i just looked him up on wikipedia. i did not know who pony ma was.

actually there are a lot of non americans! what is this poll!??! bad job

pony ma is a rapper, father of remy ma

Bezos vs Musk would be a good poll, Bezos is more evil I think but Musk pisses me off way more

Musk being a cult of personality is his worst feature, because he has no fucking personality

We have a more recent poll of the most evil billionaire who got richer in 2020, it was a dead heat between Musk, Zuck and Bez IIRC

MacKenzie Scott (ex-Mrs. Bezos) might now get my vote.

Musk being a cult of personality is his worst feature, because he has no fucking personality

― Cool Im An Situation (Neanderthal), Monday, November 8, 2021 2:41 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk I think it's even worse than that he's got the personality of a 13 year old 4channer who spends 10 hours a day thinking about memes