[tomp]

> It doesn't matter to me at all that Bill Gates has more money than God, because he's empathetic to people who aren't as rich and aren't as great as he is,

I'm glad he learned empathy in his old age; but keep in mind that he was ruthless, manipulative, exploitative, and caused a lot of long-term damage throughout most of his working life.

That's the problem I have with the "rich" - our system (and lack of government oversight/enforcement) enables and encourages evil, as long as it makes profit.

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10975825 and marked it off-topic.

[WalterBright]

> caused a lot of long-term damage

Examples?

> evil

My small business has competed against Microsoft since the 80s. While they are tough competitors, I don't see anything they've done as evil.

Check out the book "In Search of Stupidity" by Chapman.

[tomp]

> Examples?

Internet Explorer. .doc format. Viruses.

> evil

They abused their monopoly to sell crap software and destroy competitors. At least, that's what the courts say.

[WalterBright]

> Internet Explorer.

Nobody made you or anyone else use a free browser.

> .doc format.

Geez, it's a file format.

> Viruses.

Microsoft did not unleash any viruses on the world.

> They abused their monopoly to sell crap software and destroy competitors. At least, that's what the courts say.

Yeah, I'm familiar with what the Jackson court said. If you read "In Search of Stupidity", Microsoft's competitors did a fine job of destroying themselves. And Linux and Apple computers were always available for anyone to buy.

[PaulHoule]

The empathy gap goes the other way too. Some rich guy was bitching on CNBC that he didn't feel appreciated. When I was in grad school and a Linux zealot he thought that Microsoft was a great company because it empowered him to make his business work.

The political system is dominated by the 1%, but if you can really piss off 50% of voters you can cause a crisis. I think ordinary people in the U.S. are experiencing "future shock" and that is what drives them to Sanders and Trump -- no conventional politician can put together a story that makes sense at all.

[crimsonalucard]

nah nothing goes wrong when voters are pissed off. Voters can only choose between two candidates who are basically proxies for quarrelling rich people.