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Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

seattletimes.nwsource.com

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Re: Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

#5
post #2

Now that is a worthy goal to set for a budding entrepreneur: becoming a future philanthropist.

That was Andrew Carnegie's goal. Way before becoming rich he had a goal to give away mass sums of money. He wrote about his philanthropic philosophy in The Gospel of Wealth, summarized here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.html

Re: Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

#6
post #5
post #2

Now that is a worthy goal to set for a budding entrepreneur: becoming a future philanthropist.

That was Andrew Carnegie's goal. Way before becoming rich he had a goal to give away mass sums of money. He wrote about his philanthropic philosophy in The Gospel of Wealth , summarized here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.html

Erm... Did Carnegie state his goal was to give away money before he acquired massive amounts of it or was it after being labeled a robber-baron?

It's easy to say that being a nice guy was your goal all along after you get caught.

Not that Paul Allen is not a nice guy. There seems to be no evidence on the contrary.

Re: Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

#8
Which is better?

Just giving away money or targeted investment on critical research/development and social needs to inflict a lasting change (without taking any profit)?

Would you drop few billion dollars on Africa or would you make investments to create long-term industry that will give people jobs and help them help themselves?

I think what Paul/Gates/Buffet and others are doing is great, but I think we have to start looking at ways to make maximum impact instead of feel-good philanthropy to non-profit organization.

IMO ofcourse.

Re: Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

#10

"The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him." -Voltaire

Apparently he's unmarried and has no children, so there's not really many good options for his estate apart from charity. I suppose he could disperse it among nieces and nephews, or build himself a pyramid for a tomb, but charity seems like the obvious route.
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