Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A letter to our daughter

facebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 555 posts

Re: A letter to our daughter

#401

Post by gnaritas »

andreyf wrote: post #257
danielrm26 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man tries to help the world with his money and he's greeted with criticism.

I don't think cynicism and criticism are the same here. This is the man that about a decade ago who called his users "dumb fucks" for trusting him with their personal data [1]. The same man who used failed password logins to Facebook to access a journalist's email address [2]. Now he's giving 99% of his wealth to a charity he controls. This is an awesome step: dynastic wealth is stupid. However, it will take a few mo…

> Now he's giving 99% of his wealth to a charity he controls.

Which is just a way to setup a comfy retirement where you make more from the money than you have to give away to be considered a charity and everywhere you go is now "business" as long as you give some money away on the trip. Make 30% on investments, give away 10%, avoid all kinds of taxes and appear charitable all the while still in control of the whole fortune. Color me skeptical.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#402

Post by jdminhbg »

rdtsc wrote: post #376
tertius wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

> Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Quite a few Americans live payday to payday. Some work many part time jobs to make ends meet. Do they in absolute dollar terms make more than someone in Africa? Yeah they do. Does it help them if they still can't pay rent? Is that supposed to make them feel better that they make more dollars per month than someone in Burkina Fas…

I've only been through that CBS link, but it's almost comically awful; a good reminder of why you should avoid nearly every story about a complex issue from a media outlet. As a representative line:

"Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it."

But at any rate, you completely misunderstood the parent's comment, which alludes to the fact that any American with enough disposable income to be browsing HN is in a rarified stratum of wealth globally, and has plenty of opportunity to donate it to the less fortunate.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#403

Post by gnaritas »

markyc wrote: post #289
bigbugbag wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should not accept such a blatant PR stunt at face value. Why the Rich Give to Charity[1] Some give out of vanity. Some out of guilt. Some for the tax breaks. Some give out of conviction that their success in business makes them equally expert in solving the world’s problems. Yet perhaps the most powerful and common reason why the rich give is the idea most commonly referred to as “legacy.” would you rather be rem…

so what? if he's really giving 99% of his wealth to charity, and on top of that puts effort into where the money goes and that it's put to good use, why do you care that he's doing that for legacy?

> if he's really giving 99% of his wealth to charity

By "charity" he means himself, his own charity foundation. He's basically putting the money in another pocket and calling it charity. It's a tax avoidance scam. Cheaper to give away 10% a year in the guise of charity than actually pay the taxes you'd owe.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#404

Post by waterlesscloud »

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…

It wouldn't be HN without this being the top response to one of the richest people in the world announcing an intent to dedicate 99 percent of their wealth to the betterment of humanity.

If you can't respond positively to this announcement, you really should step back and do some serious self-examination.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#405

Post by wheels »

ams6110 wrote: post #340
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I mean, what else are you going to do with $45 Billion? You are thinking about it the wrong way. You don't spend $45B on stuff for yourself. You spend $45B on changing the way governments and populations live work and how power is balanced. When Bud Fox asked Gordon Gekko "How much is enough" Gekko knew immediately that Fox wasn't in the same league. Money isn't about stuff, it's about power and influence.

$45B is not enough to change governments. That's about 4 days worth of US federal spending.

It's more than the annual budgets of about 2/3rds of the world's countries, including places like Croatia, or the Philippines. I'd call that politically significant.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#406

Post by lukevdp »

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…

So if giving away $45billion for the betterment of the human race isn't enough, what does someone have to do to impress you?

Re: A letter to our daughter

#407

Post by tempestn »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #375
mgraczyk wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have more faith in the judgement of the system that elects billionaires than the system that elects our government. Billionaires will spend their money in more efficient and productive ways than our government spends tax dollars. You may disagree with a rich individual's vision of the future, but he will be vastly more likely to effect his vision than our elected officials.

Perhaps billionaires will spend their money more efficiently. But they'll spend less of it on the public good. The government may be less efficient (also, citation needed there, as I don't buy that at face value), but even if it is it has access to WAY more funds. Sure, we have some nice billionaires like Zuckerberg and Gates who give their money away, but if you required all the billionaires to give up some money, y…

If you force rich people to give away a large enough percentage of their money, perhaps you will remove any incentive for the non-philanthropic ones to keep earning more money. If they weren't inclined to give it away in the first place, they probably won't be inclined to make more, knowing they'll be required to give it away.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#409

Post by frame_perfect »

mgraczyk wrote: post #216
ryandrake wrote: post #63

Something's always bugged me about relying on philanthropy as a source of funding the public good, as opposed to the public funding the public good through taxation and the democratic process: In the former case, the public doesn't really have much of a say about where the help goes. We must rely on the judgment (and personal values) of a few rich people and hope they pick charities that maximize the benefit. Would t…

I have more faith in the judgement of the system that elects billionaires than the system that elects our government. Billionaires will spend their money in more efficient and productive ways than our government spends tax dollars. You may disagree with a rich individual's vision of the future, but he will be vastly more likely to effect his vision than our elected officials.

The system that elects billionaires is the same as the system that elects our government.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#410

Post by farresito »

tertius wrote: post #209
Swizec wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As my mum used to say "It's easy to shit when your butt is full". How hard is it, really, to give away 99% when you're still left with enough to comfortably sustain 5+ lifetimes? Bill Gates said it well here: http://imgur.com/gallery/YDuoHdr That said, I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

Well, to be honest, the cost of living is also significantly higher than in most countries.
Post reply on HN