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Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

gatesnotes.com

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Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#21

Post by xapata »

aanm1988 wrote: post #16
obilgic wrote: post #2

I wish Bill or Warren would have run for presidency as an "outsider" instead of Trump. I guess our only hope will be their successor Mark (Zuckerberg)

Why would I ever want Zuckerberg as president? Why would I want any of these intelligent, but unqualified people as president? Trump has about the same qualifications. Look at that so far.

As far as I can tell, Trump lacks intelligence. I'd rather have a Gates or Buffet presidency. They've at least shown to care about philanthropy a bit. Trump has his foundation, but it mostly seems to do stuff like pay his legal fees and buy portraits of himself.

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#23

Post by ekianjo »

kornish wrote: post #8
obilgic wrote: post #2

I wish Bill or Warren would have run for presidency as an "outsider" instead of Trump. I guess our only hope will be their successor Mark (Zuckerberg)

It's a funny observation that Mark Zuckerberg (32) actually isn't old enough to run for president at the moment (35). The next election would be the first where he's legally able. (all this irrespective of whether or not that's in his or others' best interests)

SO there is a minimum age - how about a maximum one ?

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#24

Post by dsjoerg »

johnsea wrote: post #17

Nice On the opposite number side, I hope they can help to find ways to reduce the population growth. It is unsustainable, especially in Africa and Arabic countries. (Pity one cannot just implement a China-like one child policy:))

Here is the Hans Rosling video explaining why that's not a problem: https://www.gapminder.org/videos/will-saving-poor-children-l...

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#25

Post by kornish »

ekianjo wrote: post #23
kornish wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a funny observation that Mark Zuckerberg (32) actually isn't old enough to run for president at the moment (35). The next election would be the first where he's legally able. (all this irrespective of whether or not that's in his or others' best interests)

SO there is a minimum age - how about a maximum one ?

There is no maximum age requirement. The requirements are well-articulated: http://americanhistory.about.com/od/uspresidents/f/president...

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#26

Post by toastednz »

I find Gates' lack of focus on environmental issues disheartening. I know he does invest in clean energy and feels strongly about climate change, but this doesn't really do anything to prevent deforestation NOW. I know that bringing people out of poverty may have a side-effect of improving some environmental parameters, but it also makes whole swathes of people start demanding more meat, more palm oil, more cars, more disposable goods. The big international benefactors don't seem that interested in rainforest biodiversity.

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#27

Post by tomclancy »

johnsea wrote: post #17

Nice On the opposite number side, I hope they can help to find ways to reduce the population growth. It is unsustainable, especially in Africa and Arabic countries. (Pity one cannot just implement a China-like one child policy:))

They are -- "Saving children’s lives is the goal that launched our global work. It’s an end in itself. But then we learned it has all these other benefits as well. If parents believe their children will survive—and if they have the power to time and space their pregnancies—they choose to have fewer children."

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#28

Post by jfoutz »

3825 wrote: post #20
aanm1988 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I ever want Zuckerberg as president? Why would I want any of these intelligent, but unqualified people as president? Trump has about the same qualifications. Look at that so far.

(I'm not trying to be partisan here even though it might appear to be) I don't think it is possible for anyone to have the kind of broad and deep qualifications to be POTUS at any age, much less thirty five. This is one job which effectively requires on the job training and (I imagine) lots of delegating. Sorry if this sounds partisan. It isn't my intention. I'm not saying this as anything in defense of or in opposit…

Governors of large states are about as close as you can get, i think. They lack the military, intelligence and a lot of foreign policy experience though.

I pretty much agree - OJT is intrinsically part of the deal.

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#29

Post by hxta98596 »

It's hard not to be impressed by what the Gates Foundation is doing. I don't think they get the full recognition they deserve sometimes, maybe because much of their work is abroad in the poorest countries in the world.

Hard to fathom the number of people out there in the world thankful and who owe their lives to the foundation choosing to help their community or their cause.

With that said and not to diminish the good work. It is sad and eye-opening more progress has not been made on these issues.

I think when you really look at the numbers, besides seeing the positive trends one can also see how truly difficult, large and complex these problems are. The foundation has $50 Billion dollars! And Bill can get pretty much any world leader or other billionaire CEO to take his phone calls. Yet, sorry that is not enough not even close. The foundation has to focus on very specific issues and even then it hasn't "gotten to zero" where it wants to (though Polio is close, down to 37 cases). Private foundations can only do so much, the scale of these problems really requires the cooperation of governments. I'm not sure what can be done on that or what that means, just a bit breathtaking how governments can help people or really screw things up on a scale nothing else even comes close to.

Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment

#30

Post by downandout »

toastednz wrote: post #26

I find Gates' lack of focus on environmental issues disheartening. I know he does invest in clean energy and feels strongly about climate change, but this doesn't really do anything to prevent deforestation NOW. I know that bringing people out of poverty may have a side-effect of improving some environmental parameters, but it also makes whole swathes of people start demanding more meat, more palm oil, more cars, mor…

So some trees are more important than saving 122 million children? I know I'm going to get all the nasty replies that it's a larger issue than just a few trees, that without trees there won't be people, etc. But comments like these are the reason that people dismiss environmentalists as nutjobs that care more about trees than people.
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