The article seems to be one of the popular "let's shit on a successful person out of envy" articles with little substance behind it.<p>It primarily raises generic concerns about these kinds of projects, without linking them to <i>these specific</i> projects, after some generic mud-slinging starting with "racist comments made as a teenager" and a very careful wording of "teen grooming allegations" that may leave readers thinking that Donaldson (MrBeast) was accused of grooming a co-host rather than what actually happened (the now-dismissed co-host being accused of grooming).<p>The well video doesn't mention it but the project site does mention sustainable maintenance of the wells. Of course, this could be either a serious and effective effort or a bit of text on a web site, but the article doesn't try to distinguish that either, it just assumes the worst.
There’s a heuristic in here somewhere regarding philanthropy & first principles.<p>I respect the authors commitment to showing how MrBeasts philanthropy can be ineffective if not counter productive.<p>But, in his stated intentions of getting google admoney and redistributing it to people in need, what else is he supposed to do? We can agree to disagree that this itself is a bad premise.<p>What I’m really interested in is knowing what the Beast Philanthrophy has to say about these things. Are they aware that 6/10 wells are in disrepair in some parts? Are they willing to invisibly commit funds to future maintenance? How does Beast Philanthropy vet orphanages to ensure they’re not the mentioned “farms”?<p>On the hierarchy of benevolent individuals in this example we have:
1. Rich People Philanthrophy with the intent of helping the less fortunate
2. Journalists stating 1 is inefficient for X, Y, Z, and working with 1 to improve the efficacy of their philanthropy, with the intent of helping the less fortunate
3. Rich People Philanthrophy with the intent of improving their own self image
4. Journalists writing about 1 or 3 with the intent of making them look bad instead of improving outcomes for those in need.
Is it really Faux Philanthropy what he is doing is using his platform for promotion of different causes he likes. From what I understand and see none of the things he has done are something unique rather charities and organisations were already doing it he just financed/donated to those organisations and charities. The awareness these organisations and charities received from the video are probably actually worth a lot more than what him doing in his video.
I would highly recommend a book that covers the business and motivations behind a lot of philanthropy: <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas/" rel="nofollow">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take...</a><p>MrBeast is unfortunately just one part of this. And he's not even the worst offender sadly.
There's another comment referring to Elon. I'll leave that aside, but I think the same analysis can be done for him.<p>Clearly the population is split on wether or not intent matters when it comes to philanthropy. Some people say, it is only respectable if you're doing it out of the goodness of your heart, not for some ulterior motive (like repairing/boosting your image). On the other side, you could argue that the majority of philanthropy is done for image improvement, and without that benefit millions of people would be left without help. Hoping for "true altruists" to save us is probably never going to work.<p>True altruists that can gain enough power and resources to make a difference is a paradox. I need 10 billion dollars before meaningful impact happens (random number, but the point stands _a lot of money_). That's more money that any altruistic person would ever get to, since they'd start donating at the 100million or less mark.<p>The closest we have to a true altruistic person with power is someone like Mackenzie Bezos. No derision here, but she didn't have "what it takes" to get there, but she does have the desire to help. Which is also why we don't hear much about her donations, compared I Mr. Beast, despite her giving orders of magnitude more money away. And more correctly.<p>Then, we could look one level higher, how do these people acquire their wealth? Clearly selling garbage food to kids, creating fake giveaway videos, and other things isn't exactly helping the world along the way. Making electric cars cool / hip? That's pretty good. Embrace, extend, extinguish? Terrible.<p>Holistically, Mr. Beast is earning his money off of children and "legal scams". Then, fixing his reputation by donation pennies on the dollar of that back to the world. Overall, probably not a great person. Couple that with how conscious he is of what he's doing based on various leaks, and is say definitely not someone I'd categorize as deserving of any adulation. Obviously not actively evil, but definitely overall harmful to society in his pursuit of fame and wealth.<p>Aside: how isn't this titled "MrBeast's Faux-lanthropy"?
Philanthropy never works. Philanthropy requires large amounts of money. Only the monetary Ponzi yields that kind of money.<p>So effectively, philanthropy is funded using the proceeds of theft. It's about diffusing harm to all and concentrating the benefits towards a select few.
Wow, this guy sure hates Mr Beast. I haven’t seen much but I did see the one where he created 100 wells. The author says these wells will fail soon and do not get repaired or maintained.<p>I think the reasoning is ridiculous. Shame someone for digging a well because it might not be repaired in the future????
I remember that video where Mr Beast paid for cataract surgery for a few dozen people and restored their sight. Regardless of intent, that was an immediate and material benefit to many people. It’s fair to question the motives of altruists, especially those who rely on extravagant public shows to pull viewership. But more eyeballs means more ad revenue, which means the altruism experiments can continue. If this is the most efficient, targeted model for altruism, then I’ll take it.<p>Side note, the Mr Beast handbook is an interesting read <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/how-to-succeed-at-mrbeast-production-handbook/271808765" rel="nofollow">https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/how-to-succeed-at-mrbea...</a>
With that weirdos fake ass forced smile- I imagine in years to come there will be many more articles like this one about this boring androids dark side.
"His stunts promote the concept of simplistic solutions to challenging problems, wrapping the munificent American donor in a warm glow of benevolence as he drops in to spread a little of his MrBeast largesse to some lucky recipients."<p>A grown adult man really wrote this.