4 ms·

That's a strange reaction. Hasn't the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation been one of the most successful philanthropic organizations of all time? I thought they'

by dewitt 10y ago

That's a strange reaction. Hasn't the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation been one of the most successful philanthropic organizations of all time? I thought they've saved millions of lives fighting malaria alone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...

nenadg 10y ago
There is literally nothing on that article about how many lives their initiative saved. Just standard corporate propaganda about how much they spent on this and that. If I've spent 80 millions on Vaccines does that mean that I've saved hundreds of lives? No. I don't want to be a truther here, nor I'll paste links that would confirm partial statement wrapped inside my question, but it would be great if one could be open to critically observe actions of our beloved philanthropists, there is complete universe beyond local news feeds.
- stanleydrew 10y ago
  I think your opinion is probably interesting and potentially valid, but your tone in the original comment is limiting your ability to communicate effectively. Less sarcasm would serve you well.
  - nenadg 10y ago
    sarcasm is better part of life, it's not limiting it's enriching :) I fail to understand why people hate it?
    - jblow 10y ago
      It's the sarcasm tied to apparent lack of desire to discover or communicate actual information. There are entire organizations devoted to assessing the effectiveness of various kinds of charity and measuring how many lives they save (e.g. http://www.givewell.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ and https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/), and their reports can be found within 20 seconds of googling, less time than it took for you to type your based-on-no-actual-information sarcastic judgement. Sarcasm plus knowledge would be fine.
    - rfrey 10y ago
      Because it's juvenile and lazy.
    - maus42 10y ago
      After a while, overtly sarcastic tone gets a bit boring when you get to read it every day in the every corner of internet over any possible issue. And in my experience, it's rarely very effective in changing people's opinions, if they are not tending to agree with you already in the first place.
      - nenadg 10y ago
        Okay people, you win. I wasn't trying to change opinions, I just kept my own. I'm still new here so let's consider this an experiment in public discourse. Peace ;)
    - brudgers 10y ago
      Sarcasm has its places. Hacker News discussion threads are not so much among them. So it's not so much that people here hate sarcasm as that they value the differences between Hacker News and other places on the internet where people type text in boxes.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- jonknee 10y ago
  > There is literally nothing on that article about how many lives their initiative saved. Well it's impossible to know exactly, but with statistics we can estimate that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has saved millions of lives. 7 million is the current estimate for just the vaccination program: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-look-millions-lives-saved-and-improved-gates-foundation-171643 http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-...
nenadg 10y ago
Also, Polio was near extinction before Gates jumped in and collected the ovations for finishing job. http://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ourworldindata_progress-in-polio-eradication-estimated-and-reported-polio-cases-1985-2011-%E2%80%93-who.png http://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ourworl... That's great what they've done, but saying they've eradicated polio is brutal exaggeration.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  The table I posted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12551250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12551250 contradicts them "jumping in". Other major donors have continued to make large contributions to polio intervention over the period where the Gates foundation has made their contributions, the period on your graph where it is nearly gone.

by dewitt 10y ago

nenadg 10y ago

There is literally nothing on that article about how many lives their initiative saved. Just standard corporate propaganda about how much they spent on this and that. If I've spent 80 millions on Vaccines does that mean that I've saved hundreds of lives? No. I don't want to be a truther here, nor I'll paste links that would confirm partial statement wrapped inside my question, but it would be great if one could be open to critically observe actions of our beloved philanthropists, there is complete universe beyond local news feeds.

stanleydrew 10y ago
I think your opinion is probably interesting and potentially valid, but your tone in the original comment is limiting your ability to communicate effectively. Less sarcasm would serve you well.
- nenadg 10y ago
  sarcasm is better part of life, it's not limiting it's enriching :) I fail to understand why people hate it?
  - jblow 10y ago
    It's the sarcasm tied to apparent lack of desire to discover or communicate actual information. There are entire organizations devoted to assessing the effectiveness of various kinds of charity and measuring how many lives they save (e.g. http://www.givewell.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ and https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/), and their reports can be found within 20 seconds of googling, less time than it took for you to type your based-on-no-actual-information sarcastic judgement. Sarcasm plus knowledge would be fine.
  - rfrey 10y ago
    Because it's juvenile and lazy.
  - maus42 10y ago
    After a while, overtly sarcastic tone gets a bit boring when you get to read it every day in the every corner of internet over any possible issue. And in my experience, it's rarely very effective in changing people's opinions, if they are not tending to agree with you already in the first place.
    - nenadg 10y ago
      Okay people, you win. I wasn't trying to change opinions, I just kept my own. I'm still new here so let's consider this an experiment in public discourse. Peace ;)
  - brudgers 10y ago
    Sarcasm has its places. Hacker News discussion threads are not so much among them. So it's not so much that people here hate sarcasm as that they value the differences between Hacker News and other places on the internet where people type text in boxes.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
jonknee 10y ago
> There is literally nothing on that article about how many lives their initiative saved. Well it's impossible to know exactly, but with statistics we can estimate that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has saved millions of lives. 7 million is the current estimate for just the vaccination program: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-look-millions-lives-saved-and-improved-gates-foundation-171643 http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-...

nenadg 10y ago

Also, Polio was near extinction before Gates jumped in and collected the ovations for finishing job. http://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ourworldindata_progress-in-polio-eradication-estimated-and-reported-polio-cases-1985-2011-%E2%80%93-who.png http://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ourworl... That's great what they've done, but saying they've eradicated polio is brutal exaggeration.

maxerickson 10y ago
The table I posted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12551250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12551250 contradicts them "jumping in". Other major donors have continued to make large contributions to polio intervention over the period where the Gates foundation has made their contributions, the period on your graph where it is nearly gone.