Interesting read:
http://web.archive.org/web/20130912101039/http://www.commond...
Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
131–140 of 212 posts
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#132You know, we get a fair number of commenters here at HN who are cynical about the world, who say everyone with any power is corrupt, things are getting worse, and there is nothing you can do about it. Whenever someone like that shows up, perhaps we can refer them to this letter.
I doubt that'll work. Once we develop a cynical view of the world, it's quite easy to see the negative side of everything.
Just for example, take the biggest benefit claimed in the letter of 122 million children saved. It seems to suggest that it's because of their work. Has nobody else anywhere , including those in the affected countries done anything to save the children. Why do they or anybody think that all of this can be attributed to to the Gates foundation!!
Moreover as the Gates foundation is focussing on childrens' lives, does it make any sense for anybody with lesser resources than them to tackle this problem? There is no chance of getting any recognition, as Gates foundation will claim it and it will be hard to argue against as well.
These are not my views, I'm just saying that it's possible to have these thoughts if you are cynical.
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#133It is an envious position to be in where you can positively impact such an incomprehensible number of human lives in the best of ways. It's incredibly heart warming how many people have been saved by the Gates Foundation. Although, the realist in me worries about the possibility that in the long-run, civil liberties and human rights are also of importance to humanity in saving human lives, and human dignity. Without…
Read the article...:
> Warren, your gift doubled the foundation’s resources. It’s allowed us to expand our work in US education, support smallholder farmers, and create financial services for the poor. But in this letter, we’re going to tell you about our work in global health—because that was the starting point of our philanthropy, and it’s the majority of what we do.
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is quite false. Catholics split the democrat/republican vote ~50/50. They voted for Gore, Bush, Obama, and Trump with small margins. [1] They care about this question, but not very much. Evangelicals, on the other hand overwhelmingly vote republican. Catholics, in general, are the most liberal religious denomination in the US. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-fait...
Looking more closely at your link, the white catholics were more likely to vote for Trump than protestants were (higher than anyone except evangelicals), and as I understand it, it's white catholics that are the most prominent in congress. Sorry, I meant politicians (as the parent referenced the GOP) rather than laypeople.
Trump overwhelmingly won among white voters - with 58% of their vote. White white catholics voted... Pretty much the same way as white non-catholics.
Comparing white catholics to all protestants is comparing apples to oranges.
Catholics are only slightly over-represented in congress, at 30% of Christians in congress (While making up 24% of the Christian population in the US.) They are also split 68/70 between democrat and republican. [1]
They may be prominent, but they aren't trying to turn the country into a theocracy.
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/05/congress-religious-...
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#135I 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)
None of those have the charisma necessary to run a successful presidential campaign
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> $40,000,000 (Trump's share of his father's fortune) invested in the market in 1974 would be worth $1.22 billion in 2015 (when he announced his campaign). How did you get that number? Did you include re-invested dividends? If you start in October 1974 and end in June 2015, you get a return of 9817.096% with dividends reinvested and only 2923.171% without [1]. So starting with $40 million you would end up closer to $…
> How did you get that number? Did you include re-invested dividends? From the site I linked to above (which incidentally is the site [1] you linked to in your post). It includes re-invested dividends and also taxes, which were significantly higher in the late 70's and early 80's compared to what they are now. The page I linked to goes through their methodology. You make good points about his net worth, but even if I…
> From the site I linked to above (which incidentally is the site [1] you linked to in your post). It includes re-invested dividends and also taxes, which were significantly higher in the late 70's and early 80's compared to what they are now. The page I linked to goes through their methodology.
I missed that link. It makes some good points. Of course, if you had $200 million in 1974, and your marginal tax rate was 75%, you would not hold it in person but would shield it in a corporation. I'm sure his tax lawyer would have found some structure that would have brought down his taxes significantly.
> you can't run a company of that size for so long if you "lack intelligence"
He is not a complete moron, but he is far from a brilliant businessman. And he doesn't seem to have many intelligent insights outside of business.
He is good at selling an image that appeals to a lot of Americans, though.
> even more so if you're building it back up after losing a billion dollars a few decades earlier.
How do you lose a billion dollars? Does that take a special kind of intelligence? Or does it maybe indicate that he takes irresponsible risks that sometimes pay off, but sometimes go horribly wrong? Could his relative success be explained by survivorship bias?
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#137Ghostery identifies 10 trackers and uBlock shows 7 advertising scripts, which seems like a lot for a page that you'd think shouldn't need advertising. The page doesn't even display if you block some of these scripts. This is terrible.
I get this... http://imgur.com/a/y7nmQ
Yep, I just unblocked the whole site in uBlock. There is tracking but no annoying adverts that I would want to block so I just let it through.
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would argue the otherwise. Imagine the resources and the influence power he would have on both U.S. and other nations, compared to few billion dollars spared by few people.
You're forgetting he'd be hampered by Congress. POTUS isn't a dictatorial position. He can move more or less unilaterally.
You're assuming they would run as Democrats.
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How did you get that number? Did you include re-invested dividends? From the site I linked to above (which incidentally is the site [1] you linked to in your post). It includes re-invested dividends and also taxes, which were significantly higher in the late 70's and early 80's compared to what they are now. The page I linked to goes through their methodology. You make good points about his net worth, but even if I…
> From the site I linked to above (which incidentally is the site [1] you linked to in your post). It includes re-invested dividends and also taxes, which were significantly higher in the late 70's and early 80's compared to what they are now. The page I linked to goes through their methodology. I missed that link. It makes some good points. Of course, if you had $200 million in 1974, and your marginal tax rate was 7…
> but he is far from a brilliant businessman.
I'm not claiming he is a brilliant businessman. I'm only disputing the assertion that he "lacks intelligence", which is what started this side-thread.
> How do you lose a billion dollars?
Many different ways. For example, Hillary spent over a billion dollars on her losing campaign, but I don't assume that Hillary lacks intelligence because of this.
> Could his relative success be explained by survivorship bias?
It could well be, and again I'm not ascribing any sort of "special intelligence" to Trump, just that I don't agree that he "lacks intelligence".
Re: Warren Buffett’s Best Investment
#140It'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 goo…
I wonder how much of this particular philanthropy is just giving back money that those countries spent? I.e. Microsoft licences, or balance of trade with the donor countries? A kind of benevolent taxation?
I've seen too many pirated unactivated copies of Windows Server running large businesses (that could afford the licensing easily) in many of those countries to subscribe to that theory.