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Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

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Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#151

Post by mfoy_ »

elmar wrote: post #65
SEJeff wrote: post #21

I'm surprised that people are asking how / why he is giving money away and no one mentioned his Giving Pledge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge Bill Gates and Warren Buffet pledged to give half of their net worth away during their life or death to charity. They're practicing what they preach.

it's capitalism at is best you start a company in your garage take it to be worth Bilions an then give it all away, doesn't get better than this.

I don't think you can really conflate capitalism with philanthropy like that. They're just... different things.

"Capitalism at it's best" isn't people giving away money... it's people being competitively compensated for their contributions to society-- the ability to take risks and reap the rewards.

Of course then you can argue that tax is a way to enforce a minimal amount of philanthropy onto people, forcing them to contribute to the greater good whether they want to or not... but people who seem to be very vocally in favour of pure capitalism also seem to be very vocally against high taxes.

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#152

Post by jcranberry »

pm90 wrote: post #58
jcranberry wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrew Carnegie was the OG give-all-my-wealth-away-before-I-die incredibly wealthy person. I read an essay by him in high school where he though, philosophically, he shouldn't give his money to his kids rather than donate it.

I guess it really depends on what your view of the world, and your place in it, is. I was very surprised when my parents basically said that whatever wealth they accumulated, their goal was to leave that to me. I think they view it as their duty as parents, for that to be the right thing to do. Others have a view of propagating their genes to the next generation and view inherited wealth as the way to do so (Yes, I r…

I think for Carnegie it was more of a philosophical point. His belief (if I remember correctly) was that the idea of a birthright was fallacious and possibly counter-productive. Rather than pass his holdings down to his descendants, he believed that we all have an ethical prerogative to use what we've earned in our life to benefit society at large.

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#154

Post by alexandercrohde »

Hooray for Bill. When I was young the joke was how he was a crazy man trying to monopolize/take over the world. Seems ironically he may be the single man who has given the most to the world.

Hopefully other billionaires can take inspiration from him and recognize that helping the species is a more fulfilling game than "How many 0s in my net worth."

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#155

Post by hfourm »

jtx1 wrote: post #136
hfourm wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes the assumption that the "disruption to the neighboring continent" is going to be worse as a result of overpopulation than it already is dealing with neighbors who are poor and impoverished and disease ridden. In both cases I don't think the "civilized" neighbor continent is enjoying the benefits of its poorer neighbor. There is an equal argument to be said that by eradicating these diseases that the poorer…

Civilized, no quotes needed.

Eh, mostly quotes since the definition of civilized is up for debate for the given discussion.

Does an African neighbor qualify? European only? etc

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#156

Post by chirau »

escot wrote: post #117

> Gates remains the richest person on earth after the donation with a fortune the Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued at $86 billion as of 10:40 a.m. Tuesday in New York. His donation once again puts Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos close to the top spot, with a net worth of $84.5 billion. Keeping a bit of wiggle room.

It's probably coincidental. I don't think he decided to give 4.6B overnight and I don't think he could have estimated what AMZN would be at on the day of the announcement.

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#157

Post by ChuckMcM »

maxerickson wrote: post #92
ChuckMcM wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it a bit differently, if you can figure out both all of the functional relationships in our bodies and devise a mechanism to precisely drive any and all of them, not only will you 'cure cancer' but you will be able to cure any other disease or ailment that is expressed as an undesirable functioning of that system. I don't know if you can do that with $20B but I feel these days that its more likely to occur rath…

I'm not sure a it follows that a perfect understanding of how our body functions leads to a cancer switch. Mostly because cancer tends to be associated with dysfunction and it isn't necessarily the case that dysfunction can be externally corrected.

Here is how I reason to my conclusion;

We know that every cancer is the result of a genetic change in the cell DNA which disables apoptosis (cell death).

We know that we have a system in our bodies that is tasked with destroying cells with damaged DNA. (our immune system)

We know that when the immune system attacks cancer cells, it reliably removes the cancer from our systems.

What we don't know is how to reliably program, and deprogram, our immune systems on demand. If we knew both exactly how the immune system programming system worked, and could build tools to enable us to use that knowledge to actually program or deprogram our immune cells ...

Then we would be able to cure all cancers and autoimmune disorders.

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#158

Post by carlisle_ »

canoebuilder wrote: post #141
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are talking about children dying... And you are also making the assumption that only Europe can contribute to innovation, and Africans can only be a burden on their neighbors and will never become contributors. I would agree that if the solving of a crisis like Malaria results in population growth, we need to plan on success and also focus on supporting infrastructure for those people. But I think you are saying…

I don't know if that was an intentional flattery tactic to get me to read your most more closely, but it worked, thanks, regardless. I'm surprised if the post read as "more children dying is the obvious optimal path," that wasn't my intent. I'm meaning to draw attention to the fact that if we are going to have outside interventions into societies that have drastic effects on those societies, then the outside interven…

You didn't address it and I think there is merit to the point being made about your "bedside manner". I agree with your viewpoint, but it is important to tread carefully when it comes to the lives of others. Your point can be lost not by lack of merit but by lack of semantics.

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#159

Post by burkaman »

canoebuilder wrote: post #124

eradication of Malaria (1000 deaths daily, much more suffering and cost to society). If great efforts are made to eradicate diseases in an area that has historically been subjected to various diseases such that the local population has adopted the reproduction strategy of having large amounts of offspring to counter premature deaths, but upon eradication/reduction of said diseases there is significant delay in the ab…

Why do you think healthier Africans would cause mass societal disruption in Europe? Do you think they're not capable of contributing to European society? Are they more likely to leave Africa if they don't have malaria? Is there no room for population expansion in Africa?

I genuinely don't understand the premise of your questions. Why would people start leaving Africa, and why would it be a problem if they did?

Re: Gates Makes Largest Donation Since 2000 with $4.6B Pledge

#160

Post by majani »

pm90 wrote: post #58
jcranberry wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrew Carnegie was the OG give-all-my-wealth-away-before-I-die incredibly wealthy person. I read an essay by him in high school where he though, philosophically, he shouldn't give his money to his kids rather than donate it.

I guess it really depends on what your view of the world, and your place in it, is. I was very surprised when my parents basically said that whatever wealth they accumulated, their goal was to leave that to me. I think they view it as their duty as parents, for that to be the right thing to do. Others have a view of propagating their genes to the next generation and view inherited wealth as the way to do so (Yes, I r…

It's very hard for people to fathom this, but there is a level of wealth where it is rational to blow most of your money and set aside only a small percentage for your loved ones. If Bill Gates blows 99.999% of his wealth, his kids still get 9 million dollars inheritance!
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