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Say what you want, but I respect this a lot. Sure as hell beats giving it all to your kids.
by jarbus 1y ago
Say what you want, but I respect this a lot. Sure as hell beats giving it all to your kids.
- RataNova 1y agoYou don't have to love Gates or everything the foundation does to recognize that putting billions toward global health and poverty is way better than setting up a dynasty or letting it sit in investments
- freeamz 1y agoFoundation is a way to set a dynasty! Just look at all the robber baron foundations out there.
- RataNova 1y agoSome foundations have been used that way, no doubt. But I think there's a difference between setting up a tax shelter with vague goals and actively committing to spend down the entire endowment in a specific timeframe
- freeamz 1y agoTrue. Actively committing to spend down the entire endowment in a specific timeframe does not mean it is not used create a dynasty. In the 50's the Congress in US was getting suspicious about those foundations already. There were a investigation for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_to_Investigate_Tax-Exempt_Foundations_and_Comparable_Organizations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Com...
- lostmsu 1y ago> letting it sit in investments Depends on investments. Arguably tech advances are more effective for alleviating hunger than direct food donations long term.
- barbazoo 1y agoWhen though? When is it enough to be used for something good?
- Breza 1y agoWhat companies would you invest in if you had a billion dollars and wanted to reduce global hunger?
- lostmsu 1y agoAnything in energy production, manufacturing, or bioresearch. Probably add education in these areas as well.
- RataNova 1y agoI think the ideal is a mix: fund near-term needs like healthcare and food access and invest in the systems and tools that prevent future crises
- blitzar 1y ago> letting it sit in investments I havent looked, and frankly can't be bothered [0], but I expect that even after giving away an unfathomable amount of money, the foundation and gates are probably richer (dollar net worth) than they have ever been. It has been sat in investments, they have been giving it away, but they can't keep up with it. [0] Turns out I could be - https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/william-h-gates/ https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/william-h-ga...
- danvoell 1y agoAnd/or when you die. We need more people trying to make the world better while they are here instead of treating the finish line like the, well, finish line.
- throwaway5752 1y agoExactly. Look at the Walton and other families hoarding wealth by abusing tax law and lobbying to make it even worse, and the armies of advisors and attorneys parasitically helping them. Gates is thousands of times better than most. He and Melinda have done more good for the world than all but a few handfuls of individuals. I've heard estimates his original MSFT stake would be worth over a trillion dollars now.
- js8 1y agoAmong billionaires maybe he is on the good side. But in general? Linus Torvalds did more for the world than Bill Gates, IMHO. And he didn't need to set up a system that first appropriates money in order to "be generous" later.
- stewx 1y agoWhat diseases has Torvalds eradicated?
- pclmulqdq 1y agoWhat diseases has Gates eradicated? Polio has been surging back and nOPV (which Gates stands to generate a lot of personal wealth from, by the way) has been a bit of a bust. Measles is going strong, too, and Malaria seems to have been a bit of a token effort for Gates.
- nearbuy 1y agoPolio type 2 and 3 were eradicated and overall we went from 400k cases of paralytic polio per year down to less than 1% of that.
- pclmulqdq 1y agoYou may want to check your numbers because polio type 2 and type 3 are both still around (in fact, cVDPV type 2 is very, very common). The GPEI website has the recent numbers, updated weekly (although with ~3 month lag). 400k to 4k is not 400k to 0. Eradication means 0. People don't get smallpox vaccines today because we hit 0. American children get ~4 doses of IPV still, despite what you are claiming as "eradication."
- oulipo 1y agoSure, but only capitalism concentrates so much wealth in such few hands An alternative would be that company like Microsoft couldn't gain so much wealth, simply because their revenue would be capped / taxed high enough that the extra money they make goes back directly to people and governments In this case, *everyone* gets to vote and choose for what philanthropies the amount gets used, rather than having just "one guy" deciding for himself how to spend all this money, which is prone to errors
- celeritascelery 1y agoThe government spends about 10x the amount of money on foreign aid than the gates foundations entire budget ever year. Not to mention the hundreds billions spent on domestic aid every year. So your dream is already a reality.
- hiuyty 1y ago[flagged]
- ragnot 1y agoRaising kids to not be spoiled even with moderate amounts of wealth is hard as is...imagine being one of the richest men in the world
- TheAmazingRace 1y agoOr, why not do both? If you are worth billions, you can give millions to your kids and give the rest to charities of your choice. Everyone wins. This attitude of "I'd rather burn everything" feels like such a massive waste of an opportunity to leave a quality legacy behind and legitimately make the world a better place.
- babelfish 1y ago[flagged]
- therein 1y agoSo you are saying his life is miserable because he will never know the joy of giving to Bill Gates because he is giving to his children. I think you're living that life.
- titzer 1y agoDon't take a dime then either. Good luck generating your own power, homeschooling your kids, and building your own roads.
- hiuyty 1y ago[flagged]
- akpa1 1y agoThere's a pretty clear line between "this inheritance is enough to make you comfortable and sort you out for life" and "this inheritance will make you rich beyond your own comprehension" - there's a certain amount of money that nobody has a need for.
- brainzap 1y ago[flagged]
- ivape 1y agoI mean, the lifestyle of rich babies doesn't even require that much money. He can easily provide them the money to travel to a random city and buy a luxury condo and set up a food-truck business. A couple of million is enough to one day decide to pack it up and buy a farm.