A letter to our daughter • Hacker News Board

Re: A letter to our daughter

#361

Post by calibraxis » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

bobbles wrote: post #331

scoofy wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Koch, worth 44,200 million dollars, is donating literally millions?!? How generous of him to give away approximately 0.002% of his fortune here and there. Please be serious. This comparison is laughable, the ≈ $300M listed on his foundation is literally 0.7% of his net worth.

..and who the hell are you to determine where someone donates their money??

Perhaps you should not publicize press releases and webpages detailing money you allocate "altruistically", if you do not wish others to comment.

(Throughout history in many cultures, people gain status by ostentatious gifts of wealth. Of course, that means you have to tell everyone of your benevolence. And as everyone knows, Koch uses his wealth — and shows like this — to wield enormous influence in politics.)

Re: A letter to our daughter

#362

Post by miscellaneous » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:03 AM UTC

dev1n wrote: post #262

thatswrong0 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you voluntarily give more taxes to your governments? Or would you rather donate that money to a charity of your choosing / research? > the answer to the variety of problems that plague Chicago's South Side, New Orleans, or any number of troubled communities? No one (government, private sector, etc.) has the answer to those problems. Those are really really hard problems that require the cooperation of non-profi…

I, for one, would absolutely voluntarily give more taxes to my government for the sole purpose that all this shit infrastructure would be fixed up. Put people to work on infrastructure projects and I will gladly give up more money in the form of taxes. Basic income on the premise of infrastructure renovations is something I'm fully behind and I think many more citizens would be too, specifically those getting by on f…

Yeah so you just agreed with the above comment - you want control on where your money goes. So does Zuckerberg.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#363

Post by rquantz » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:05 AM UTC

milge wrote: post #341

sokoloff wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would call that tax avoidance, not evasion, but no matter. Judge Learned Hand (a real person's name) wrote, "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes." I agree wholeheartedly. I imagine that were I in their shoes, I'd be fairly confident that I cou…

Agreed. I'd rather have my taxes being spent on worthwhile endeavors instead of half going to blow up strangers on the other side of the world. $435 hammers to line Dick Cheney's pockets? No thank you. A large portion of my taxes going towards curing cancer? Have some extra.

Well, military spending is half of discretionary spending, but it's nowhere close to half the federal budget. I'd rather these billionaires and corporations be paying into the commonweal and helping us to pay for the social programs and infrastructure we need that are chosen by the will of the people. Instead they get to choose whatever priority is important to them, which are sometimes helpful (malaria) and sometimes disastrous ("education").

Re: A letter to our daughter

#364

Post by majani » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:11 AM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #267

sytelus wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly feel this power, influence, giant houses, jets, personal cruise ships etc are old generation stuff - something that grey haired Gekko will personify. The "new rich" is dramatically different and for the better. Today's centi-millionairs wants to stay anonymous, don't want to have butlers, have houses that they can manage without permanent staff and often prefers travelling first class or renting Yatch inst…

Hate to break it to you but what you described about the "new" millionaires is the majority of all multimillionaires, regardless of generation. See: The Millionaire next door

I accidentally downvoted you due to fat finger error, sorry.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#365

Post by samuelgrittner » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:13 AM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

I found it off putting how he used his daughter's birth as a PR opportunity for his philanthropy. Those events are totally unrelated but he used one to supercharge PR for the other.

My opinion on philanthropy is that if you're not doing it anonymously then you're doing it more for yourself than for the cause. It becomes just another status symbol (I'm more good than you because look at that news headline of how much I donated).

Re: A letter to our daughter

#366

Post by charlie_vill » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:18 AM UTC

Thank you Mark.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#367

Post by robinsen » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:18 AM UTC

The heading is attractive

Re: A letter to our daughter

#368

Post by ethanbond » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:18 AM UTC

tertius wrote: post #354

gradstudent wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My claim is simple. The U.S. is the most prosperous place on the planet, the inequality doesn't touch at least a hundred other countries. Again, inequality isn't necessarily an indicator of poverty. The comparisons you make are on absolute terms but the reality is more nuanced. There are almost 47 million people living in poverty in the US [1] and something like 38% of the population live paycheque-to-paycheque (up…

> There are almost 47 million people living in poverty in the US Look at the definition of poverty and you'll agree it's certainly a form of poverty, but again compared to the majority of the planet doesn't really cut it. Living paycheck to paycheck is generally an unfortunate choice or lack of education, but the point remains that there's a paycheck. And I can certainly agree that the culture of credit/debt isn't th…

Americans are the most charitable people on earth.

So you don't really have a point.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#369

Post by knughit » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:19 AM UTC

jlarocco wrote: post #270

ucha wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I find this is a very cynical approach to the lecture of this letter. Most everyday Joes might not have the means to change the world but it is certain that when turn into billionaire, they rarely pledge the quasi-totality of their fortune to improve the well being of others. If this is narcissistic, just let it be and be appreciate that for once, a great deal of money will be put to good use. The world is f…

> Most everyday Joes might not have the means to change the world but it is certain that when turn into billionaire, they rarely pledge the quasi-totality of their fortune to improve the well being of others. > If this is narcissistic, just let it be and be appreciate that for once, a great deal of money will be put to good use. The world is full of Koch Brothers, Saudi princes and European heirs to prove that most b…

Unfortunately, alQaeda/Daesh is a philanthropic program in House of Saud's point of view.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#370

Post by knughit » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

samuelgrittner wrote: post #365

6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

I found it off putting how he used his daughter's birth as a PR opportunity for his philanthropy. Those events are totally unrelated but he used one to supercharge PR for the other. My opinion on philanthropy is that if you're not doing it anonymously then you're doing it more for yourself than for the cause. It becomes just another status symbol (I'm more good than you because look at that news headline of how much…

Non-anonymous philanthropy is important because it establishes a culture that encourages others to donate as well.