4 ms·

Quote from the article: Mark Zuckerberg did not donate $45 billion to charity. You may have heard that, but that was wrong. Here’s what happened instead: Mr. Zu

by rogeryu 11y ago

Quote from the article: Mark Zuckerberg did not donate $45 billion to charity. You may have heard that, but that was wrong. Here’s what happened instead: Mr. Zuckerberg created an investment vehicle. In doing so, Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Chan did not set up a charitable foundation, which has nonprofit status. He created a limited liability company, one that has already reaped enormous benefits as public relations coup for himself. His P.R. return-on-investment dwarfs that of his Facebook stock. Mr. Zuckerberg was depicted in breathless, glowing terms for having, in essence, moved money from one pocket to the other. An L.L.C. can invest in for-profit companies (perhaps these will be characterized as societally responsible companies, but lots of companies claim the mantle of societal responsibility). An L.L.C. can make political donations. It can lobby for changes in the law. He remains completely free to do as he wishes with his money. That’s what America is all about. But as a society, we don’t generally call these types of activities “charity.” (End of quote)

sametmax 11y ago
Exactly. This is what kills me with the recent trend of claming billionairs are heroes. This year, Bill Gate has been all over the internet, "saving the world". But most of the money he gives away is invested by his "charity". And it goes into companies making military equipments, mining, extracting oil, etc. causing direct destruction of the causes they are pretending to protect. E.G: I lived and worked in Africa. I saw the results of the "green revolution" made by Monsanto, an destructive agriculture program financially supported by the Gates. It's ugly. The continent is still recovering from it (and apparently they are in better shape than some parts of India). But the Gate foundation says they want to help Africa : they fight malaria. So on one hand african people can starve, have no control over their agriculture or natural ressources, but they _may_ be saved from malaria in 10 years. This is hypocrisy at its best. They are not heroes. They are smart investors. And for one thing they build for others, they build 3 for themself and may destroy many things on their path. Do not get blinded by their (good) PR.
- rudi-c 11y ago
  How is the money invested exactly, do you know? Is he actually funding those companies in some way, or does he just own some stocks as part of some very diversified portfolio? If it's the former, I really want to know. If it's the latter, stating that the Gates is financially supporting the destruction of agriculture is a very very strong claim. You need to argue that buying a company's stock on an open market does something significant besides increase the price of that stock by some small amount, or that the increase is meaningful. I have a hard time imagining what practical impact it would have on Monsanto's short term or long term operations that would justify using words such as "hypocrite". There are investment funds that try to avoid "dirty" stocks, and it maybe it would be morally better to invest only in those funds. Until then, is everyone who invests in an index fund "dirty"? Monsanto is part of the S&P 500 after all.
  - sametmax 11y ago
    Investing is not a number game. It has consequences on the real world. If you buy a stock of people making weapons, yes, you are helping to create a world with more weapons. You are, quite litteraly, owning a piece of a company making weapons. You can argue that you are ok with building weapon. It's another debate. But you can't say you are not helping. Companies are selling shares on the market because it helps them. And if tomorrow you make a big speech about gun control, it makes you a hypocrite. You can slice it in many way, use semantics, play the cards of the layer of abstractions. But in the end, it's a simple truth.
- Oletros 11y ago
  > This year, Bill Gate has been all over the internet, "saving the world". But most of the money he gives away is invested by his "charity". And it goes into companies making military equipments, mining, extracting oil, etc. causing direct destruction of the causes they are pretending to protect. Any source for that?
  - sametmax 11y ago
    http://www.thenation.com/article/how-gates-foundations-investments-are-undermining-its-own-good-works/ http://www.thenation.com/article/how-gates-foundations-inves...
  - vanattab 11y ago
    Here is a link to the foundations financial records. I did not see anything that I would object to but maybe the GP will look over the actual data and enlighten us. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Financials http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Informatio...
- TheMagicHorsey 11y ago
  You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when it comes to the Green revolution, the Gates foundation, or India. I have worked in agriculture in India. Without the green revolution India would have had a famine the likes of which the world has never seen. Pakistan and India would probably have fought more wars than they already did, to the death, over farmland and water (because neither would have had enough land to feed their populations). Gates has done amazing things for maternal and child welfare in India. I have worked in clinics that are supposed to be funded by the Indian govt., but in reality only function because of NGO participation in the health ecosystem (not just Gates foundation, but they undoubtedly take a leadership role). I hope nobody actually believes the FUD you are spreading. You are deluded, a liar, insane, or maybe all of those things. I sincerely doubt you have actually set foot in a developing nation in your life.
  - sametmax 11y ago
    I worked in Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal and India. In many place the agriculture is dependant of seeds they can't regrow and have to buy or attach to specific chemical products they have to buy too. Rivers are polluted with the said chemicals, insects develop resistances, soils are now dependant of external nutriments. GMO are sold with no prior testing. Everything you can't do in Europe or the US, they do there. The green revolution, instead of helping create an indendant agriculture, created a relation of total dependancy to the investors and spreaded destructive agriculture methods. But I'm not going to insult you the way you did insult me. Because I'm not insane. I'm a polite person sharing an experience. BTW, my very first mission in Africa was for the Gate foundation. Half of our budget went directly to intermediary entities as a "managing fee". We couldn't control our budget ourself, we had to ask to people doubling our bills and taking a cut. Reports were falsified. And nobody cared. I never received once an email from the foundation to check how things were going. It's not a suprise really. Gates was the founder of one of the worst company known, and yet praised for it. MS did so many bad things, and no one seems to remember: - corruption : http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrawrage/2013/03/20/microsoft-whistleblower-allegations-highlight-global-corruption-risks/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrawrage/2013/03/20/micros... - helping dictators : http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/wikileaks_microsoft_tunisia/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/wikileaks_microsoft_tunisia/ - Monopolistic practices : http://www.networkworld.com/article/2221165/microsoft-subnet/a-blast-from-the-past---microsoft-accused-of-monopolistic-practices.html http://www.networkworld.com/article/2221165/microsoft-subnet... - patent troll : http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220040230959%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20040230959&RS=DN/20040230959 http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=... - extorsion as a business model : http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/27/microsoft-has-received-five-times-more-income-from-android-than-from-windows-phone/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/27/microsoft-has-received-five... And the Gate foundation keeps it up : http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/bill-gates-philanthrope-oui-mais-19525 http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/bill-gates-phil.... Small translation : "As for most philantropic organisation, the Gates Foundation gives each year less than 5% of its capital to pay minimal taxes. [...] The remaining 95% are invested. [...] The Journalist of the LA times realized that the companies the foundation had shares and whose objectives were in contradiction with the caritative goals the GF pretented to reach for were up to 41% of the total, meaning 8.7B." This is not a surprise, as BG started his all carrier by stealing ideas from Xerox, not to mention the shady IBM deal (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/did-bill-gates-steal-the-heart-of-dos http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/did-bill-gates-s...). Morality is not his strong point. You can highligh what good the man DID bring with him, but you can't ignore all the bad he has done, or is doing right now. That would be foulish.

by rogeryu 11y ago

sametmax 11y ago

Exactly. This is what kills me with the recent trend of claming billionairs are heroes. This year, Bill Gate has been all over the internet, "saving the world". But most of the money he gives away is invested by his "charity". And it goes into companies making military equipments, mining, extracting oil, etc. causing direct destruction of the causes they are pretending to protect. E.G: I lived and worked in Africa. I saw the results of the "green revolution" made by Monsanto, an destructive agriculture program financially supported by the Gates. It's ugly. The continent is still recovering from it (and apparently they are in better shape than some parts of India). But the Gate foundation says they want to help Africa : they fight malaria. So on one hand african people can starve, have no control over their agriculture or natural ressources, but they _may_ be saved from malaria in 10 years. This is hypocrisy at its best. They are not heroes. They are smart investors. And for one thing they build for others, they build 3 for themself and may destroy many things on their path. Do not get blinded by their (good) PR.

rudi-c 11y ago
How is the money invested exactly, do you know? Is he actually funding those companies in some way, or does he just own some stocks as part of some very diversified portfolio? If it's the former, I really want to know. If it's the latter, stating that the Gates is financially supporting the destruction of agriculture is a very very strong claim. You need to argue that buying a company's stock on an open market does something significant besides increase the price of that stock by some small amount, or that the increase is meaningful. I have a hard time imagining what practical impact it would have on Monsanto's short term or long term operations that would justify using words such as "hypocrite". There are investment funds that try to avoid "dirty" stocks, and it maybe it would be morally better to invest only in those funds. Until then, is everyone who invests in an index fund "dirty"? Monsanto is part of the S&P 500 after all.
- sametmax 11y ago
  Investing is not a number game. It has consequences on the real world. If you buy a stock of people making weapons, yes, you are helping to create a world with more weapons. You are, quite litteraly, owning a piece of a company making weapons. You can argue that you are ok with building weapon. It's another debate. But you can't say you are not helping. Companies are selling shares on the market because it helps them. And if tomorrow you make a big speech about gun control, it makes you a hypocrite. You can slice it in many way, use semantics, play the cards of the layer of abstractions. But in the end, it's a simple truth.
Oletros 11y ago
> This year, Bill Gate has been all over the internet, "saving the world". But most of the money he gives away is invested by his "charity". And it goes into companies making military equipments, mining, extracting oil, etc. causing direct destruction of the causes they are pretending to protect. Any source for that?
- sametmax 11y ago
  http://www.thenation.com/article/how-gates-foundations-investments-are-undermining-its-own-good-works/ http://www.thenation.com/article/how-gates-foundations-inves...
- vanattab 11y ago
  Here is a link to the foundations financial records. I did not see anything that I would object to but maybe the GP will look over the actual data and enlighten us. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Financials http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Informatio...
TheMagicHorsey 11y ago
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when it comes to the Green revolution, the Gates foundation, or India. I have worked in agriculture in India. Without the green revolution India would have had a famine the likes of which the world has never seen. Pakistan and India would probably have fought more wars than they already did, to the death, over farmland and water (because neither would have had enough land to feed their populations). Gates has done amazing things for maternal and child welfare in India. I have worked in clinics that are supposed to be funded by the Indian govt., but in reality only function because of NGO participation in the health ecosystem (not just Gates foundation, but they undoubtedly take a leadership role). I hope nobody actually believes the FUD you are spreading. You are deluded, a liar, insane, or maybe all of those things. I sincerely doubt you have actually set foot in a developing nation in your life.
- sametmax 11y ago
  I worked in Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal and India. In many place the agriculture is dependant of seeds they can't regrow and have to buy or attach to specific chemical products they have to buy too. Rivers are polluted with the said chemicals, insects develop resistances, soils are now dependant of external nutriments. GMO are sold with no prior testing. Everything you can't do in Europe or the US, they do there. The green revolution, instead of helping create an indendant agriculture, created a relation of total dependancy to the investors and spreaded destructive agriculture methods. But I'm not going to insult you the way you did insult me. Because I'm not insane. I'm a polite person sharing an experience. BTW, my very first mission in Africa was for the Gate foundation. Half of our budget went directly to intermediary entities as a "managing fee". We couldn't control our budget ourself, we had to ask to people doubling our bills and taking a cut. Reports were falsified. And nobody cared. I never received once an email from the foundation to check how things were going. It's not a suprise really. Gates was the founder of one of the worst company known, and yet praised for it. MS did so many bad things, and no one seems to remember: - corruption : http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrawrage/2013/03/20/microsoft-whistleblower-allegations-highlight-global-corruption-risks/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrawrage/2013/03/20/micros... - helping dictators : http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/wikileaks_microsoft_tunisia/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/wikileaks_microsoft_tunisia/ - Monopolistic practices : http://www.networkworld.com/article/2221165/microsoft-subnet/a-blast-from-the-past---microsoft-accused-of-monopolistic-practices.html http://www.networkworld.com/article/2221165/microsoft-subnet... - patent troll : http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220040230959%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20040230959&RS=DN/20040230959 http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=... - extorsion as a business model : http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/27/microsoft-has-received-five-times-more-income-from-android-than-from-windows-phone/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/27/microsoft-has-received-five... And the Gate foundation keeps it up : http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/bill-gates-philanthrope-oui-mais-19525 http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/bill-gates-phil.... Small translation : "As for most philantropic organisation, the Gates Foundation gives each year less than 5% of its capital to pay minimal taxes. [...] The remaining 95% are invested. [...] The Journalist of the LA times realized that the companies the foundation had shares and whose objectives were in contradiction with the caritative goals the GF pretented to reach for were up to 41% of the total, meaning 8.7B." This is not a surprise, as BG started his all carrier by stealing ideas from Xerox, not to mention the shady IBM deal (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/did-bill-gates-steal-the-heart-of-dos http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/did-bill-gates-s...). Morality is not his strong point. You can highligh what good the man DID bring with him, but you can't ignore all the bad he has done, or is doing right now. That would be foulish.