[vehemenz]

If tech billionaires were leaders, maybe. Instead they spend small fractions of their wealth on silly projects and charities that benefit their tax bills. The rest of the time they are collecting wine and antique furniture for house #6.

[ben_w]

I think you gave it backwards; mere tens of millions is enough to collect wine and antiques for your sixth house, while almost all “billionaires” are in that category purely by virtue of their leading control of large corporations.

(I’m sure there are other examples, perhaps inheritances, but the only non-leadership billionaire I can think of in any field off the top of my head is Rowling).

[vehemenz]

That is my point. A billionaire should be done with material hobbies while they are a still millionaire.

[wizzwizz4]

There's a difference between a ruler and a leader.

[Cthulhu_]

Rich people should not lead a country or be able to influence it (beyond their one vote). They are far removed from the other 99% of the population.

[zwily]

Don’t forget building rockets to go to Mars.

[vehemenz]

Which is great, unless your entire country is swallowed up by social and educational problems that enable a corrupt, fascist government, or if deforestation and despeciation continues at its current pace. The technological gains from rockets, solar panels, and electric cars won't matter then. Figure those things out, and then a trip to Mars won't look like a sci-fi futurist's vanity project.

[ben_w]

Most of those things require a lot more than even a hundred-billionaire can fix.

Hell, even just “make successful electric car brand” is more than I was expecting when I first heard about Tesla, and even if they do as well as their current market cap implies, they’re still not going to solve climate change by themselves — and that’s one of several causes of the current mass extinction.

[TeMPOraL]

That's literally one of the two high-prominence rich people who does something useful with their money (other being Gates and his charity efforts).

[pr0zac]

As much as I dislike him and dislike the idea of the privatization of space, Bezos is also funding a rocket company with his billions, Blue Origin.

[benologist]

Buying your neighbor's surrounding houses for privacy...