Morgan's Wonderland was named after his daughter, Morgan, pictured on the left in the top picture. At one point, he bought the house nextdoor to my mom and turned it into a transitional group home for young adults with special needs.
We'd frequently see Morgan at the house, helping out with different projects. Morgan's father seemed to be an incredibly kind and generous man who understood that money=power or at least opportunity and recognized his financial privilege.
When he finally decided to sell the group home, he sold it to another company who shared his principles of helping kids with special needs.
Now, my sister has kids whom she and my mom take to Morgan's Wonderland. Her kids are not significantly limited by any special needs, but the park is so accessible that is one of the few places where parents with young toddlers or infants can take their children on rides or let them roam relatively free at the splash pads.
All-in-all, I'd say that Morgan and her father have been incredibly positive influences on San Antonio and the community.
I had to go look back at who posted this comment (I don't usually look) and I knew it was going to be you.
I've taken my special needs nephews there and it's amazing. They both loved the Ferris wheel so I had to ride it what felt like a hundred times. Even the regular ticket prices are really good for the quality of the place.
This is well out of reach for most of us to replicate, but think about Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk... These dragons could change the entire world, yet they instead only seek personal gains and the disruption of positive progress.
Good for this guy and his family, though. He did what so many will never care to do.
All the positive things they could be spending their money on that wouldn't put a chip in their wealth and the only charities any of them do keeps turning out to be ways to hide their money from the tax collectors.
Let's not lump Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk together though. I feel weird defending Bezos, but he does have a big charitable fund that's quite transparent about how it spends its money. As for Elon, he's allegedly given billions to charity, but has never specified what that charity is and given his views on things it's probably appropriate to consider that highly suspect.
I wish more millionaires and billionaires would use their exorbitant wealth for community service. Clearly they can still be wealthy and make positive impacts in the world.
That's what happened to Rockefeller and Carnegie. After, I think, Vanderbilt died Rockefeller and Carnegie got into a competition to see who can give away the most money. They donated buildings, money, and all sorts of stuff till they died. The thing is, they were making so much money through their businesses they ended up with more money when they died.
Of course this "change of heart" the 2 had was after decades of competing to be the richest man in the world. They accomplished this by not paying workers enough, and even making production more dangerous. The steel workers were being injured at a rate of 1 in 9. They should have been taxed properly to begin with and pay their workers better instead of calling pinkertons to shoot them when they striked.
The Pinkerton/steel workers were Carnegie. Rockefeller had his own problems, include running newspaper articles saying electricity is dangerous and burns down houses, so stick with Rockefeller kerostine lamps or other trusted oil products.
You’re absolutely right they need to be heavily taxed, but the government has plenty of money and they aren’t doing anything like this. So taxing the rich appropriately still wouldn’t lead to outcomes like this, which is what makes this guy special.
I’d be a full on hedonist. Donate to causes in person for the smiles and the thanks.
Having my name on stuff - eh… not as important b/c I see how colloquial names are given and dedicator’s names[1] are ignored.
[1] Bay Area people: you ever hop on the Nimitz or Junipero Sera? More like the 880 or the 280. Or do you hear “John F. Kennedy Space Center” or just “Cape Canaveral” when rockets launch?
They all want to be remembered and worshiped for what they accomplished by seeing numbers go up in their bank account.
They are too egotistical to realize they would actually earn respect, adoration and have a legacy if they put their money towards helping the world be a better place. Instead they seem to think having a dick measuring contest via rocketships is a good way to help humanity.
And this is why good people who got rich don't stay rich and people who do are usually selfish assholes. Elon Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion, he could have literally built hundreds of amusement parks for disabled people with the same money. Or do literally a thousand other things to make life for other people better. Instead he bought a toxic social media platform to make it even more toxic.
He bought twitter because he was trying to do a pump and dump with the stock. Then the SEC said we warned you once you better be serious this time. He decided buying twitter for a massive premium was better then possible prison time.
He bought twitter because he was trying to do a pump and dump with the stock.
Maybe, but the fact of Saudi and Russian backing of his takeover and his turning twitting into (more of) a nazi propaganda shithole suggests that was the main purpose behind the acquisition - especially when the cost was an absolutely trivial fraction of his overall wealth.