[epistasis]

Power, including financial power, reveals who people really are without constraints. President Johnson has to be my favorite example of this, he spent a political career kowtowing to racists, enforcing racism where he needed to in order to acquire power, and then when full power was finally thrust on him by JFK's assassination, he flips and pushes through key legislation from the Civil Rights Movement.

I certainly didn't put forward an idea that having money makes people less of an asshole. Somebody who gives it away in a non-assholish way certainly makes them less of an asshole.

Or is your contention that anybody with money is an asshole, without exception?

[jfil]

I just thought of an interesting thought experiment. Inagine a politician who kowtows to racists and does their bidding for his whole career and then, just before grabbing the presidency, he has a heart attack and dies. How would you see his legacy? What can you say about the essence of this person?

[joquarky]

At the very least, I would question the motive of people who defend billionaires.

[epistasis]

Who do you believe is doing this? The implication, I guess, would be me, but I wasn't talking about strictly "billionaires". What is the wealth cutoff here, and how?

[pydry]

zdragnar, not you.