There are no ethical billionaires. I said it.

[MadameButterfly]

119. My main issue with Bloomberg was the defeat of Mark Green by oligarchy

We would have had a Mamdani 40 years earlier. Whatever good you can claim about Bloomberg, Green would have been a sea change. Green was the overhwelming favorite until Bloomberg began his shenanigans. Starting with Bloomberg switching from Democratic to Republican so Green and Ferrer exhausted themselves fighting a bruising primary which normally would have decided the mayoral race in Democratic NYC. (Green was also accused of spreading racist leaflets--and was exhonerated too late) After the primary Green was financially strapped, and in the general election Bloomberg spent exponentially more money than had ever been spent in a mayoral election (much like he was doing in then recent Democratic presidential primary). Charities that would normally have been left leaning endorsed Bloomberg, because they were loyal because of his large donations, or even dependent on them. Then, 8 years later, he used the same coercion to remove terms limits so he could buy himself a third term.

Those elections were an argument for why we shouldn't have billionaires, much less anyone with tens of billions. They can buy elections, and he did. Whether he did some good things along with the bad, to my mind doesn't justify the means. We the people had a right to choose.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/nobody-dared-cross-him-a-look-back-at-that-time-michael-bloomberg-bought-a-third-mayoral-term/