3 ms·

> I am not entirely convinced that all of this is really what is advertised. What does that even mean? Be explicit. Right now I'm left to assume you think he's

> I am not entirely convinced that all of this is really what is advertised. What does that even mean? Be explicit. Right now I'm left to assume you think he's implanting 5G chips in children... More to the point, barring huge changes in this country, what else can we expect of the ultra rich? What Gates is doing is nearly best case scenario...

stephc_int13 4y ago
I have absolutely no theory about what they are doing. I have no idea. The question is this: why should we give this foundation more credits than what SBF was trying to achieve? How do we know this is not bogus? What about secondary effects? What about the potential induced corruption around those super-rich foundations?
- aschearer 4y ago
  The response is, look it up -- the Gates Foundation publishes stuff all the time. As for the hand wringing around secondary effects, corruption, etc. Who cares? Rich people are going to be rich. Gates is visibly giving money away, explaining his process, etc. What are the other ultra rich doing? We have even less insight and less reason to think they're pitching in for humanity. And that's all by design in this country, and I doubt there's a plurality of people who would seek to change it. I'm not trying to what-about-you. I'm trying to say, let's applaud the good, even if it falls short of perfect.
- nindalf 4y ago
  SBF was donating his customers’ deposits. Bill Gates is donating his own wealth. SBF made his money from a Ponzi scheme. Gates made his money selling software. SBF’s wealth existed only in fantasy land. Gates’ wealth exists on the real stock market. I could go on. At no point am I claiming that Gates is an angel or that every action taken by Microsoft over the last 40 years is faultless. No, they’re both far from perfect. But SBF is a con man. And Gates is not.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  What if what if what if? Look at what the foundation has done and judge them on that. You seem to be looking for a reason to judge them based on nothing other than your own suspicion. The most (unfounded) ulterior motive that I can imagine is that they want to help poor countries prosper so that they grow the pot and keep our markets going up. That benefits everyone though so it's hard to knock it.
  - Xelynega 4y ago
    Doesn't Microsoft have a partnership with OpenAI, who's product is essentially "getting people in third world countries to create datasets to train their models"? I don't see how funneling the people in these countries into low-paid jobs that require a lot of unpaid work to accomplish(finding tasks on mechanical Turk isn't paid) "benefits everyone".
- Xelynega 4y ago
  My answer is we don't, and anythung a foundation like this puts effort towards is going to be biased(I've yet to see the gates foundation take up a social cause that would affect Microsoft's bottom line). The whole idea of charities is that were letting private entities control the "altruism dollars" in society, the only reason to do this is to prevent the public from deciding the course of the funds and to add a layer of obscurity to make it harder for the public to see where the funds are going. To the people responding to you basically saying "charities are good, what do you mean?", why is it that we have to donate money to the gates foundation to provide foreign aid, isn't that one of the things we expect our government to do and pay taxes towards?
- nitwit005 4y ago
  What if you're a time traveling dinosaur? What's the point of asking a bunch of hypotheticals without presenting either evidence or an argument of some sort?
yunwal 4y ago
I'd prefer if he didn't hang out with convicted child rapists for one.

stephc_int13 4y ago

I have absolutely no theory about what they are doing. I have no idea. The question is this: why should we give this foundation more credits than what SBF was trying to achieve? How do we know this is not bogus? What about secondary effects? What about the potential induced corruption around those super-rich foundations?

aschearer 4y ago
The response is, look it up -- the Gates Foundation publishes stuff all the time. As for the hand wringing around secondary effects, corruption, etc. Who cares? Rich people are going to be rich. Gates is visibly giving money away, explaining his process, etc. What are the other ultra rich doing? We have even less insight and less reason to think they're pitching in for humanity. And that's all by design in this country, and I doubt there's a plurality of people who would seek to change it. I'm not trying to what-about-you. I'm trying to say, let's applaud the good, even if it falls short of perfect.
nindalf 4y ago
SBF was donating his customers’ deposits. Bill Gates is donating his own wealth. SBF made his money from a Ponzi scheme. Gates made his money selling software. SBF’s wealth existed only in fantasy land. Gates’ wealth exists on the real stock market. I could go on. At no point am I claiming that Gates is an angel or that every action taken by Microsoft over the last 40 years is faultless. No, they’re both far from perfect. But SBF is a con man. And Gates is not.
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
What if what if what if? Look at what the foundation has done and judge them on that. You seem to be looking for a reason to judge them based on nothing other than your own suspicion. The most (unfounded) ulterior motive that I can imagine is that they want to help poor countries prosper so that they grow the pot and keep our markets going up. That benefits everyone though so it's hard to knock it.
- Xelynega 4y ago
  Doesn't Microsoft have a partnership with OpenAI, who's product is essentially "getting people in third world countries to create datasets to train their models"? I don't see how funneling the people in these countries into low-paid jobs that require a lot of unpaid work to accomplish(finding tasks on mechanical Turk isn't paid) "benefits everyone".
Xelynega 4y ago
My answer is we don't, and anythung a foundation like this puts effort towards is going to be biased(I've yet to see the gates foundation take up a social cause that would affect Microsoft's bottom line). The whole idea of charities is that were letting private entities control the "altruism dollars" in society, the only reason to do this is to prevent the public from deciding the course of the funds and to add a layer of obscurity to make it harder for the public to see where the funds are going. To the people responding to you basically saying "charities are good, what do you mean?", why is it that we have to donate money to the gates foundation to provide foreign aid, isn't that one of the things we expect our government to do and pay taxes towards?
nitwit005 4y ago
What if you're a time traveling dinosaur? What's the point of asking a bunch of hypotheticals without presenting either evidence or an argument of some sort?

yunwal 4y ago

I'd prefer if he didn't hang out with convicted child rapists for one.