[martokus]

Pleasure. I feel sorry about Bill and Melinda because the expectations of them are super high as you just proved yourself. Instead of laying on the beach of a private island they travel around the world meeting people having what-not ilnesses. For any sane person this must be a taxing experience. They need to wind down from time to time. I would have taken a gap year a decade ago. What they do is admirable. And if he wants to buy a billion $ coffee mug he should - it's well earned after all.

[thundergolfer]

It’s boggling to me that you’d imply that in order to “wind down” Gates needs to spend $650 million dollars. He is a human being and there is no evidence to suggest people worth 100,000 a middle class westerner needs to spend multiple order of magnitude more money to treat stress.

This is making me wish for more Jack Dorsey’s who spend mere thousands on meditation retreats.

Your coffee mug example makes your reflexive defence of billionaire excess even more obvious. I’m with Peter Singer and the Effective Altruists, we absolutely should criticize the rich for buying Rolex when Timex will do, and the savings can be used to buy medicine for sick children. The yacht is like 50,000 Rolex watches.

[okasaki]

What expectations?

They need a super polluting yacht to wind down?