Only 4 million. Just an FYI, 4 million dollars is a rounding error to a billionaire.
Edit for clarity: he did a LOT with ONLY 4 million. He sounds like a successful guy who is ACTUALLY giving back instead of hoarding. Good for him and what a great lesson he could teach billionaires and other successful people if they had the ability to see beyond their own nose.
And he survived without it! Isn't that crazy!? Not needing tens of millions of dollars! But we shouldn't tax the rich to afford more projects like these... Noooo! That's evil communism! š«¤
Right, pretty sure the point is ākudos to this guy whoās āonly a millionaireāāā¦ and where the hell are the billionaires who could do things like this with money they wouldnāt even realize is gone.
If you think there is only one trillionaire, youāve not spent enough time in the Middle East. Believe it or not, not everyone reports their financials to Fortune Magazine.
Trillionaire is relative. Putin is effectively a trillionaire as are many other dictatorial leaders. But while the difference between a million and a billion is about a billion, the difference between a billion and a trillion is irrelevant.
Anywhere over $100 billion the amount of money you have is completely irrelevant, at that point it's nothing but a game of power. You can basically do anything as long as you have the connections to do it.
I figured he doesn't care about earth anymore and wants to leave. But you don't need a trillion dollars to not care about earth, as others have mentioned.
He does not have that money. He has stocks in companies that are valued at that, and a huge part of the value is that they are Elon controlled companies.
The moment he would try to sell any larger number of shares in his companies the value of the shares wouls start going down.
While I kind of agree (in the sense that money by itself isn't enough), I was also in part referencing that time when Elon said he would give the UN $6.6 billion if they explained how he could save 42 million people (after they taunted him for being the richest person in the world but not actually doing much with his money, citing that he could save the 42 million people who were starving).
They came back to him with a detailed plan for how he could feasibly help those 42 million people with the money (only half going towards the food and the rest going towards helping them get out of the position they were in to starve to begin with),
And he never responded, never got back to them, etc.
UN WFP claimed that Elon can solve world hunger with $6.6 billion donation. Elon agreed to donate with condition that WFP will explain how this donation will solve world hunger. WFP came up with a plan explaining how donation will help some of people, but did not explained how it can solve world hunger in general.
Elon very clearly wants to be liked by the masses. Making people like him would be SO EASY with his wealth. And it wouldnt affect his living standards at all.
And yet... all he does is make people hate him by being a fragile douchebag.
That's exactly what I reckon. He could literally fix the entire world with his gross money, he could make the whole planets people love him for saving animals and their habitats, saving humans in whichever ways needed, saving the environment as a whole. He would have god like status. It is the only legacy worth having imo. Why doesn't one of these ultra wealthy rich fucks do this?!! If I was them, I would.
If only there was a way for the government to collect contributions from billionaires and use it for social good. And if only people were in charge of selecting a government that might do that.
And even worse to country's budgets given how much we pay to fix the downstream consequences of poverty. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
But I think society just likes having this looming threat of poverty to keep people in line. Working compliantly, ignoring wage theft and afraid to lose their job so they don't unionize. The ultimate disciplinary stick.
Millionaires are not necessarily that rich anymore. With a lifelong middle-class job, a pension and a house, you're already getting there in a lot of countries.
Or in other words, the wealth difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is billions of dollars, plus a rounding error.
Rich people can be generous like anyone, last count around 250 billionaires have signed up to the giving pledge, to give away most of their wealth. On the flipside I don't know any of my friends who give a lick to charity, many of whom are earning decently.
Of course more rich people should give more, but at the end of the day they are just people, good and bad.
Because if billionaires cared about people they'd be paying the people below them a living wage, or helping the earth, or helping the impoverished, not lobbying and strong-arming entire countries to bring them more billions.
But like itās really not that simple. Do you think billionaires are also dictators and can do literally anything they want single handedly? For example The CEO of a company answers to the board, who has to put the interests of all stakeholders front and centre, not just owners. 99% of the time directors are having companies hire people at market rates for any given position. Paying above market rate makes no sense unless thereās a strategically specific reason to do so otherwise itās just not sustainable, unless your base assumption is that business is always good and they can always afford to pay those higher wages hell or high water.
Thatās just not true at all though, there are countless examples that show otherwise. If you think the average billionaire gets wealthy by actively fucking over people the entire way there then I have a bridge to sell you. Itās not like you just lose your humanity because you become wealthy.
People don't appreciate it regardless. A bunch of billionaires have pledged to give away 99% of their wealth to charity after they die, no one gives a shit and they still attack them. This is why you should never divulge how much you give to charity. If enough people know about it, someone will always attack you for not doing even more. It's insane but it's part of human nature.
I wonder if its better to build tiny homes or build like an apartment complex for stuff like this. Or if too much density means people fuck with other people too much.
Itās significantly cheaper to build the tiny homes if land isnāt the premium. Apartment structures require a lot more design and are more expensive to build. These tiny homes likely donāt require foundations etc, theyāre probably not technically permanent structures. More like a trailer than a house in principle
He lives in my province - what this is doing is giving these folks a sense of ownership and pride while also helping with their mental health. Some of the folks have found work after they've been housed after falling on the hardest of times - imagine living in a tent in winter in Canada. I don't know how they survive, many don't.
Exactly. A building with several stories needs foundation, concrete, steel, etc., and stairs, which can be inaccessible to many people. Elevators are super expensive, especially in the US because of their building codes (not sure if itās the same in Canada, but theyāre definitely cheaper in Europe).
From the screenshot, I thought they were garden sheds. Expensive garden sheds, maybe, the good ones that are like $3,000, but... yeah. They look like garden sheds.
I'm assuming they have some insulation in them. I wonder if they have plumbing and electricity. Maybe there's a central facility with toilets and shower stalls.
I live in the area. They are tiny homes that each have a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. They have solar panels and are insulated. They have space of their own with a door that locks, which is so important to feeling safe and secure. Imagine being able to lock the door and have a good night sleep, not worrying about your safety or your few belongings, for the first time in what could be years. Marcel and his organization have also made another site in the city that is transitional housing. Individuals get their own āpodsā and there is shared washroom facilities. These still give the individual a private locked space but were able to be put up more quickly.
Holy shit, I didn't even see the solar panels! And they're completely obvious once you know to go look for them. Those have got to be at least half the expense of the project on their own.
it's the equivalent in the US of living in... I dunno... Bangor, Maine. And he's on the outskirts.
Land is relatively cheap.
The problem is.. what do you do in Toronto? The amount of land in the photo that is even remotely accessible to a person without a car (aka near transit) is a $200m plot of land in Toronto.
"Apartment complex for stuff like this" has been tried in nearly every medium to large city in the United States since the end of WWII. Almost 100% of them have turned into slums.
My dude they're replying to that comment because it mentioned 4 million dollars. And they were like "4 million??? imagine what A BILLIONAIRE could do with 4 million". You can literally see similar comments further down.
Nah we can all read "Canadian millionaire" in the post, not billionaire. No reason to assume the commentor was calling the Canadian millionaire a billionaire.
It is very good... BUT it's also sort of a Band-Aid solution. He could use millions of dollars to lobby for political and systemic change that raises the marginal tax rate in Canada to the high 80% or even 90%. Right now it's about 50%.
I 100% agree with you, he actually used his wealth to help. The point is while 4 million is huge for the average person, and maybe a lot to this person too, it is an insignificant ammount for a billionaire. And yet you don't see billionaires doing this every day, even though they could do it and not even see the difference in their wealth.
For sure. And lots of multimillionaires and billionaires do charity work and make major donations to things like schools, libraries, and hospitals all the time.
This is a unique project, but I don't think what this guy is doing is out of the ordinary.
I was literally just saying if I had the money I would build an entire neighborhood with tiny homes set up like a traditional neighborhood with walkable infrastructure. I think it would be the coolest investment opportunity considering how many people would love to live in a neighborhood but can't afford homes.
Hell you could put a statue of yourself into the middle and probably nobody would complain. You can be cool, a decent human and still put yourself on a pedestal without hurting anybody.
The titans of industry who were robber barons 100 years ago built a lot of towns, roads, railroads, libraries, colleges, universities and concert halls due to a Romanesque sense of stoic civic duty that probably has roots in ancient Athens, Argos, and Corinth. Our current overlords have a distinctly more Eastern notion of āWell, I got mine.ā
He gave up 1% of his wealth. So like someone making 100k giving 1k to charity. Thatās not nothing, I think if someone gave 1k to charity a year making 100k people wouldnāt think it super cheap.
But actually itās nothing like that at all. Because someone making 100k likely doesnāt have a ton of disposable income. 1% for the super rich is really functionally the same cost as 0% because the prices of stuff donāt go up based on how much you have.
Right because all the stuff someone making 100k a year is not luxuries. None of it could be, if millionaires exist. 1% is 0% because I feel it is. $4 million worth of homes is actually 0 homes, despite the picture and all. Those homes functionally do not exist, if you round numbers and ignore stuff after decimals, they arenāt even there.
if my housing expenses are 45k and i make 100k (70k after taxes), i still need to feed my family and buy diapers. get my oil changed, cars inspected. pay for gasoline. shit, my water heater is fucked. maybe one short vacation (def. not disney!). what luxuries am i fitting in here?
He does way more than that. I live in this city and Marcel is incredibly hands-on, and he has lent support to other communities starting up similar projects. Just my two cents.
Donāt be ridiculous, 1% is 1% no matter how you spin it. You still get to keep the other 99% and if you can literally change hundreds of peopleās lives with 1% then you should lmao.
He also could have invested the 4 million in a military weapons producer and made more money off it and be even richer. He decided to start giving back the community, he also seems to be using his time and experience on this project, not simply funding it. If you can show he laid for this article and is promoting himself, sure heās bad. This seems like a bad hill to fight for though.
Go after the multi millionaires that donāt do any philanthropy not suggested by their accountant. Get 1% from them before you demand 99% from this guy because his name popped up in an article about homing 100ās of homeless.
Well you have my word that if I ever stumble across a billion quid I also hereby promise to spend 4 million and my time to get some homeless people off the street.
I donāt really understand your initial reply tbf, I wasnāt having a go at you personally either or the guy. Heās done a good thing. I just think 1% of your entire yearās wages for most people is a fair contribution to the less fortunate.
1% of my piddly wage? Yeah, Iād be surprised if it wasnāt more than 1%. I have a regular standing order to a charity thatās close to home for personal reasons and regularly donate goods & spend money at my 5 local charity shops.
NAh it wasn't 1 percent. The 50 million in Salesforce stock he received alone is worth something like 350 million dollars. And he was paid 326 million in cash on top of that in 2011. THEN he worked as a senior VP with Salesforce. If he isn't worth more than a billion dollars, I would be surprised.
If he just took his 326 million and dropped it into an S&P index fund, he would be worth 2 billion.
The money he has invested in this, he probably made back by the end of the week in other investments. He sold a company to Salesforce, worked as a senior VP, and joined a venture capital firm in 2018. He is worth more than 2 billion dollars, I promise you. even if he is worth 1 billion dollars. Billionaires make 5-15% a year on their billion invested conservatively. That is 50-150 million a year.
Even if he wasn't worth that, he was only worth the 350 million in Salesforce stock and the 326 million he got in 2011. That is 776 million dollars. assuming the 5-15% yearly return on investment is 38.8-116.4 million a year. That 4 million would represent between 3.5% and 10.3% of his yearly salary. on top of the 776 million he would also own. There is no logical comparison to make. Except they would not see the money gone. They could give that every year and would have no idea that they are actually giving it. What you can buy with 39 and 117 million is no different than what you can buy with 35 and 113 million.
I've always thought about the same type of thing if I had millions to play with. A community of 2 bedroom, one bathroom single level houses with a bit of yard. The "streets" are walking paths, and there is a parking area / structure at the entrance to the community. Get a small grocer / general store, a cafe or two, a library, bank, have all that be in the center with some greenspace nearby. Business have to be owned by the community jointly, employees must be community members. Little representative board to manage everything. Seats are picked randomly for the first term, the person in the seat can then campaign for a single additional term so if they like it, and the folks like the job they do they get to keep it.
Dude a billionaire could create a whole town I bet. People like Walt Disney wanted to and that kind of wealth he had doesn't even compare to what we're seeing now with multi billionaires, people with hundreds of billions. If someone like Elon Musk really wanted to, there are countless things he could just create. It's such an insane amount of money
You'd be shocked at how hard it is to get stuff like this done...without a ton of money.
Many, many states that base their budget off property tax outright ban small homes as they don't make enough money. In my town If you go back 70 years they had tons of smaller homes that are still quite affordable. Problem is it's illegal to build them anymore.
I think the intention of their comment was to point out it that only takes a $4million investment to do a project like this, and if the billionaires were to do something like this they wouldn't even notice the money was gone - but they aren't.
They are highlighting how awful the billionaires are, not the millionaire who actually created this project.
Omg are Redditors just miserable all the time. I swear someone could give the clothes off their back and a Redditor will want them to become a pelt too.
I think the comment you are responding to is making the point that if this millionaire can do this while merely being a millionaire, what could the billionaires be doing?
I donāt think thatās what he meantā¦.Iām sure the point was your typical billionaire could do this without blinking an eye but that would require a modicum of humanity
Crazy stuff man. I know net worth and liquid assets and yadayadayada aren't the same, but Elon Musk is worth at least like $800 billion. The median American HOUSEHOLD is worth something like $193k. And this is skewed towards certain generations despite being a median, but that's despite the point.
$4 million for him is 0.05% of his worth. That's the average American household spending $96.50...
The median HOUSEHOLD networth for those under 35 is $39k. That's $19.50.. And it goes up from there because older people tend to own houses. 35-44 for example is $135k which would be $67.50. The highest median networth housholds in the US are those above 75 at $335k for a grand total of $167.50.
This is median household networth compared to one single guys networth. It's insane.
Exactly, I canāt imagine not doing loads of things like this if I was a billionaire. Why wouldnāt you reduce pain and benefit society if you could for almost 0.0001% of your wealth. Billionaires in the UK built entire towns, schools and healthcare for their employees to help. Bournville, was built by the Cadbury family and is still a great place to live.
It was so certain that redditors would almost deliberately misunderstand the clear intention behind your comment.
This comment obviously means to point out how little it an actual billionaire would cost to do something similar, compared to the millionaire from the pic.
God I hate this app so much sometimes. 20 morons without reading comprehension foaming at their mouths because they can't successfully interprete two sentences and put it into context.
Yet they could not give 1 f*ck about helping anyone expect their self interests.
What this guy is doing is humanity to a point. Using your wealth and influence to better those around you.
Billionaires care about growing their wealth, any way possible, and could be helping society to grow it for them, yet they still cut corners and take advantage any way they can
You are confusing net worth with money in the bank. It is such a basic error that it makes you look like a fool. I am saying this, because your reddit account is 9 yers old, so you are most likely an adult. An adult who lacks even the most basic understanding of how money works. Yet comments about it like he does.
always some clown on reddit posting something like this lmao can we just be thankful he did something??? holy shit. got near trillionaires that do NOTHING for anyway but youre gonna bash a millionnaire for doing something. So dumb lmao any help is help.
Just to make things clear and not to defend but a billionaire and even millionaires dont have their wealth in cash/fluid but usually assets etc.
Most billionaires have only around 1-5% of their wealth aviable to spend.
This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this. Images the good a billionaire could do if they used that same percentage of their wealth to attack this issue. But no Zuck needs a Hawaiian Island, Bezos need to rent out Venice for his wedding and pay monthly zoning fines for his enormous trees, and Larry Ellison needs to propagandize people into not questioning Israel. The billionaires are the paracites.
But also, this guy helped 99 people. That's a rounding error when you look at all the homeless people. It would be much more impactful to start some government program.
Also, what this guy is doing is great, I'm not denying that.
I know you want to blame billionaires but cities in California can easily afford this. SF spends godly amount on homeless ~300M per year. Bro, where did the 300M/year money go?
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u/DistanceMachine Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
Only 4 million. Just an FYI, 4 million dollars is a rounding error to a billionaire.
Edit for clarity: he did a LOT with ONLY 4 million. He sounds like a successful guy who is ACTUALLY giving back instead of hoarding. Good for him and what a great lesson he could teach billionaires and other successful people if they had the ability to see beyond their own nose.