5 ms·

Arguably this is where the Billionaires and others that have "made it" should be spending their wealth. Trying to fund these social and environmental projects.

by daemin 8y ago

BonesJustice 8y ago
I was just thinking that this would be a great way for Zuckerberg to garner some positive press for a change.
- Kalium 8y ago
  A hospital with his name on it springs to mind.
- dylan604 8y ago
  Why not setup a foundation so that the money is not an investment, but a contribution. People with that kind of money are always looking for ways to not pay taxes on it. Set up a charitable foundation where the 1% look to lower their tax liability can donate. The foundation can specialize in hiring crews to go collect ocean trash. How is it not a win-win. I know I'm over simplifying, but seriously, how is this not a thing? Yes, running trash removal from the ocean is not profitable, so nobody will want to invest. So solve the problem by coming at it the other way. Even if it only gets enough money for a couple of years worth of operation, to an early comment's point, isn't that better than nothing?
mlthoughts2018 8y ago
One underappreciated point about this is that there’s no reason to think billionaires would be good at this. Billionaires who made their fortune through their own invention or business acumen are exceptionally good at making money and protecting wealth. That doesn’t mean they are good at producing a different instrument of value, like some measure of environmental health or social well-being. You pretty much have to convert those social problems into a format where it’s an inescapable wealth problem if they don’t solve it. But if you leave it up to their discretion, they’ll either lack focus because they are focused on making or protecting wealth, or they’ll be out of their depth trying to generate non-profit outcomes which is a skill they don’t have. Imagine if we put an earned wealth cap of $1 billion dollars of total worldwide assets, and then we said that to exceed that wealth cap, youhave to reach specific societal level social and environmental wellness milestones. Kind of like Elon Musk’s current Tesla compensation, but applied to all billionaires. No family businesses, no offshore accounts, no shell companies, no way to leave wealth in non-cash assets. You hit 1 billion, any increase of wealth beyond it from any source is immediately seized by the government and held in untouchable escrow until you demonstrate hitting societal wellness outcomes.
- jgroszko 8y ago
  You could spend a lot of money lobbying for those laws to go away before you hit $1bn...
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    Of course it’s an unrealistic proposal. I’m just saying if we couldn’t enforce something like that, then asking billionaires to solve world crises is like asking a professional basketball team to win the gold in synchronized swimming.
richmarr 8y ago
Apparently it'd cost $4.7tn [1] to deploy enoug low-carbon tech worldwide to keep us within 2 degrees, and the top 1% collectively have $127tn [2], $26.5tn of which is hidden in offshore tax havens [3]. Presumably that $4.7tn estimate will now have to go up since it was from 2015, but still. If billionaires were that bothered they would have addressed the problem by now. They're not coming to help us, they're building spaceships so they can leave. Sources here: [1] World bank article - http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/18/raising-trillions-for-climate-finance http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/18/raising-... [2] Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/2014-global-wealth-report/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/2014-global-wea... [3] Tax Justice Network - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/super-rich-trillions-offshore-tax-havens/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/super-rich-tril...
andrewmcwatters 8y ago
Billionaires have pittance wealth in comparison to nation-states who should be funding these efforts.

Arguably this is where the Billionaires and others that have "made it" should be spending their wealth. Trying to fund these social and environmental projects.

by daemin 8y ago

Arguably this is where the Billionaires and others that have "made it" should be spending their wealth. Trying to fund these social and environmental projects.

BonesJustice 8y ago

I was just thinking that this would be a great way for Zuckerberg to garner some positive press for a change.

Kalium 8y ago
A hospital with his name on it springs to mind.
dylan604 8y ago
Why not setup a foundation so that the money is not an investment, but a contribution. People with that kind of money are always looking for ways to not pay taxes on it. Set up a charitable foundation where the 1% look to lower their tax liability can donate. The foundation can specialize in hiring crews to go collect ocean trash. How is it not a win-win. I know I'm over simplifying, but seriously, how is this not a thing? Yes, running trash removal from the ocean is not profitable, so nobody will want to invest. So solve the problem by coming at it the other way. Even if it only gets enough money for a couple of years worth of operation, to an early comment's point, isn't that better than nothing?

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

One underappreciated point about this is that there’s no reason to think billionaires would be good at this. Billionaires who made their fortune through their own invention or business acumen are exceptionally good at making money and protecting wealth. That doesn’t mean they are good at producing a different instrument of value, like some measure of environmental health or social well-being. You pretty much have to convert those social problems into a format where it’s an inescapable wealth problem if they don’t solve it. But if you leave it up to their discretion, they’ll either lack focus because they are focused on making or protecting wealth, or they’ll be out of their depth trying to generate non-profit outcomes which is a skill they don’t have. Imagine if we put an earned wealth cap of $1 billion dollars of total worldwide assets, and then we said that to exceed that wealth cap, youhave to reach specific societal level social and environmental wellness milestones. Kind of like Elon Musk’s current Tesla compensation, but applied to all billionaires. No family businesses, no offshore accounts, no shell companies, no way to leave wealth in non-cash assets. You hit 1 billion, any increase of wealth beyond it from any source is immediately seized by the government and held in untouchable escrow until you demonstrate hitting societal wellness outcomes.

jgroszko 8y ago
You could spend a lot of money lobbying for those laws to go away before you hit $1bn...
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  Of course it’s an unrealistic proposal. I’m just saying if we couldn’t enforce something like that, then asking billionaires to solve world crises is like asking a professional basketball team to win the gold in synchronized swimming.

richmarr 8y ago

Apparently it'd cost $4.7tn [1] to deploy enoug low-carbon tech worldwide to keep us within 2 degrees, and the top 1% collectively have $127tn [2], $26.5tn of which is hidden in offshore tax havens [3]. Presumably that $4.7tn estimate will now have to go up since it was from 2015, but still. If billionaires were that bothered they would have addressed the problem by now. They're not coming to help us, they're building spaceships so they can leave. Sources here: [1] World bank article - http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/18/raising-trillions-for-climate-finance http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/18/raising-... [2] Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/2014-global-wealth-report/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/2014-global-wea... [3] Tax Justice Network - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/super-rich-trillions-offshore-tax-havens/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/super-rich-tril...

andrewmcwatters 8y ago

Billionaires have pittance wealth in comparison to nation-states who should be funding these efforts.