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Bill Gates and Buffet don't live that swanky a lifestyle considering the size of their wealth, and the amount they have pledged to charity is unprecedented.

gnaritas 18y ago
Only because their fortunes are equally huge. They could give a lot more. Looking at Gates, I feel like his foundation is nothing more than a shelter for his money, he only gives just enough to meet the legal requirement for a foundation and invests the bulk of it to keep the fortune growing.
- yan 18y ago
  That's a really ignorant statement. His foundation has been doing unprecedented work in treating diseases and education. They not only donate a lot of money, but oversee it's spending and design programs out of their pocket. None of it is just simply a tax write-off.
- tlb 18y ago
  Gates spends about 0% of his fortune for his personal pleasure. He's not on the beach surrounded by bikini babes. He works hard on his current mission, and he deserves our respect. His wealth is invested either in growing businesses (a good thing) or through his foundation to improve the world (a very good thing.) It's not clear that he could grow the foundation much faster than he has -- they're trying to do something novel and you can't just grow that from nothing overnight.
- jacoblyles 18y ago
  From previous threads, I know you don't like rich people and are personally offended by income inequality. But attacking one of the world's largest charitable benefactors for not doing enough in your not-so-humble estimation strikes me as petty. Gates has the wisdom and guts to tackle such unsexy causes as malaria in the third world. Because Bill Gates exists, there is substantially less suffering in the world. That's not something you can say about many individuals with any confidence. We could take away his money and spread it among the masses, but I guarantee you those masses would not use his money in nearly as useful ways. We could take away his money and spend it through the government, but the government already has much larger aid programs that do much less good. I understand criticizing Gates for his business practices. But attacking him for how he chooses to fight malaria - it boggles my mind. Do you have any EVIDENCE that Gates is being anything less than sincere in his charitable projects?
  - vinutheraj 18y ago
    Because Bill Gates exists, there is substantially less suffering in the world. Hehe ... I don't think the windows vista users will agree with you !! [:D] ( sorry ! I couldn't resist it )
  - gnaritas 18y ago
    > From previous threads, I know you don't like rich people You are mistaken. > and are personally offended by income inequality No, just excessive income inequality. There's something wrong with a system that allows one individual to amass more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population combined. That's a broken system that's far too tilted to favor the individual over the society as a whole. I don't have anything against rich people, I have something against the system that allows it to such excess. Stating my opinion is not attacking, all I said was they could give more, which is a fact. The foundation is required to give 5% a year to avoid most taxes, which seems to be all they give, investing the other 95% to grow the endowment without taking into consideration of the harm that 95% could be bringing to the world... http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?coll=la-home-headlines http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx0... That strikes me as them being more worried about making money than actually helping people. > but I guarantee you those masses would not use his money in nearly as useful ways No you can't, you can only guess. > But attacking him for how he chooses to fight malaria - it boggles my mind. You have a strange definition of attacking. I didn't attack them, and I'm not dissing the good they do but it's being blind to not see that they don't do as much as they can, they do as much as the law requires them too. That says something whether you want to see it or not.

gnaritas 18y ago

Only because their fortunes are equally huge. They could give a lot more. Looking at Gates, I feel like his foundation is nothing more than a shelter for his money, he only gives just enough to meet the legal requirement for a foundation and invests the bulk of it to keep the fortune growing.

yan 18y ago
That's a really ignorant statement. His foundation has been doing unprecedented work in treating diseases and education. They not only donate a lot of money, but oversee it's spending and design programs out of their pocket. None of it is just simply a tax write-off.
tlb 18y ago
Gates spends about 0% of his fortune for his personal pleasure. He's not on the beach surrounded by bikini babes. He works hard on his current mission, and he deserves our respect. His wealth is invested either in growing businesses (a good thing) or through his foundation to improve the world (a very good thing.) It's not clear that he could grow the foundation much faster than he has -- they're trying to do something novel and you can't just grow that from nothing overnight.
jacoblyles 18y ago
From previous threads, I know you don't like rich people and are personally offended by income inequality. But attacking one of the world's largest charitable benefactors for not doing enough in your not-so-humble estimation strikes me as petty. Gates has the wisdom and guts to tackle such unsexy causes as malaria in the third world. Because Bill Gates exists, there is substantially less suffering in the world. That's not something you can say about many individuals with any confidence. We could take away his money and spread it among the masses, but I guarantee you those masses would not use his money in nearly as useful ways. We could take away his money and spend it through the government, but the government already has much larger aid programs that do much less good. I understand criticizing Gates for his business practices. But attacking him for how he chooses to fight malaria - it boggles my mind. Do you have any EVIDENCE that Gates is being anything less than sincere in his charitable projects?
- vinutheraj 18y ago
  Because Bill Gates exists, there is substantially less suffering in the world. Hehe ... I don't think the windows vista users will agree with you !! [:D] ( sorry ! I couldn't resist it )
- gnaritas 18y ago
  > From previous threads, I know you don't like rich people You are mistaken. > and are personally offended by income inequality No, just excessive income inequality. There's something wrong with a system that allows one individual to amass more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population combined. That's a broken system that's far too tilted to favor the individual over the society as a whole. I don't have anything against rich people, I have something against the system that allows it to such excess. Stating my opinion is not attacking, all I said was they could give more, which is a fact. The foundation is required to give 5% a year to avoid most taxes, which seems to be all they give, investing the other 95% to grow the endowment without taking into consideration of the harm that 95% could be bringing to the world... http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?coll=la-home-headlines http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx0... That strikes me as them being more worried about making money than actually helping people. > but I guarantee you those masses would not use his money in nearly as useful ways No you can't, you can only guess. > But attacking him for how he chooses to fight malaria - it boggles my mind. You have a strange definition of attacking. I didn't attack them, and I'm not dissing the good they do but it's being blind to not see that they don't do as much as they can, they do as much as the law requires them too. That says something whether you want to see it or not.