Big Tech billionaires abandoned the conspicuous philanthropy of earlier capitalist titans

Evidence

In previous eras, public negativity encouraged many monopolistic industry titans to give back to society in conspicuous ways. The Gates Foundation worked to eradicate diseases. But many of the new Big Tech billionaires showed little sense of noblesse oblige. They privately competed on yacht length and lived out their midlife crises in public. Jeff Bezos bulked up and took on a new romantic partner. Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a “cage match.” They seemed fully disinterested in cavorting together within “high society.” Peter Thiel used his great wealth to plan a doomsday-ready concrete bunker in New Zealand. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 716

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the reader’s mechanism of status dynamics — if the nouveau riche reject high-society status-seeking, what status ladder replaced it?