ARCHIVES: Sam Bankman-Fried is a very clever, enterprising, hard-working and good-hearted individual. There is no sensible frame of reference, however, according to which he deserves to control 0.005% of the entire wealth of the world.
give all of it awayIn fairness, Bankman-Fried himself would probably agree with that judgement. More grateful than triumphant, more goofy quant than greedy titan, he has none of the crusader swagger of Elon Musk, or the oracular ease of Warren Buffett. Motives apart though, there are three reasons to question Bankman-Fried’s canonisation.
In evaluating his overall impact though, two additional considerations bear thinking about. The first is that crypto’s biggest known real-world application is still in the distinctly dodgy world of international arms and drug dealing. And the second is that he made his money without creating more than a handful of jobs. Indeed the net employment impact of the advent of FTX will probably be negative, as blockchain technology has no need for the likes of bank clerks and security guards.
Implicit in the Bankman-Fried election is an assault on capitalism itself, or at least on its proxies – materialism and hedonism. Bugger the Bugatti is the not-too-subliminal message; the proper thing to do right now, the only thing to do, is to take care of the abiding scourges of hunger, illiteracy, environmental degradation, preventable diseases and the like.
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