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Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

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Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#31

Post by foobarchu »

ng12 wrote: post #22
foobarchu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but part of it is probably his (successful) attempt to shut down a journalism outlet that he had a personal beef with by bankrupting them with proxy lawsuits. Free press, no matter how much you may not like the stuff an outlet chooses to focus on, is an important part of free democracy, and when billionaires can essentially just lay siege over non-legal matters I consider it an active attempt to erode modern…

You're conveniently ignoring the part where Gawker was doing illegal things and therefore lost the lawsuit (getting a verbal smackdown from a judge in the process). Your argument only works if the lawsuits were baseless and/or frivolous. I'm not sure how you can throw shade on Thiel -- would it be any better if media companies could freely ignore the law as long as the affected individuals lack the funds to take them…

You're misinterpreting what i'm saying. Gawker did something illegal and they did deserve to pay for it.

The issue is that Thiel had no direct connection to that incident. The issue is that he funded everything because they outed him as gay (completely legal), with the express goal of bankrupting them via lawsuit. He didn't want them to learn a lesson, he wanted to fucking end them.

While he didn't do anything illegal, I think it absolutely counts as eroding modern society.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#32

Post by bayonetz »

oligopoly wrote: post #15
shubhamjain wrote: post #5

I wrote about this a while back [1]. Thinking that more charitable donations will create more upliftment is a false premise. Don't get me wrong, charities do serve a function. But most of the human suffering emanates from greedy politics, corruption, and dumb policies. Most of the world problems can't be solved with capital alone. Poor African countries, for instance, have received trillion dollars in aid, and yet be…

Often the aid does more harm than good and actually keeps the very people in position of power that are corrupt. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics[0] examines the very phenomenon. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11612989-the-dictator-s-...

Awesome book. I find the lessons apply at all levels of leadership and influence, i.e., from running a country to running a high school clique. I worked in Africa under PEPFAR/CDC and can confirm, like 5% on average of that aid actually reaches the intended targets and has the intended impacts. The rest is siphoned off and diverted to the dictators and their coalitions (as defined by the book, the people actually keeping the dictator in power, not the populace).

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#34

Post by rajacombinator »

CodeKommissar wrote: post #6
Finnucane wrote: post #4

I'm going to guess that what the question is referring to is not random charitable donations, but large projects in the old Rockefeller/Carnegie mold. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have done this, but not too many others. Eli Broad has dedicated major funding for medical research. Peter Thiel seems to be determined to destroy society. I guess it depends on how much the feel themselves to be a part of society, and want…

> Peter Thiel seems to be determined to destroy society. Lmao, why do you say this? Besides being Pro-Trump (which is pretty bad), does he have an active role in any ventures that makes you think he wants to destroy society?

But he’s determined. To destroy society!

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#35

Post by muzani »

Because "charity" is not necessarily the best place for them to put it. Lots of money goes into charity, but a lot of it is lost from inefficient spending.

And few of them believe their businesses are not doing a lot of good for society. Jeff Bezos is the only one who can create an Amazon. Rockefeller improved transportation. Warren Buffet invests in businesses people are too greedy or impatient to invest in.

They all believe that they're adding a lot of value to society by doing what they do. Elon Musk is good at articulating what he does, but Jeff Bezos probably believes that he's doing a lot more good for poverty in the USA by reinvesting his money into Amazon.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#36

Post by ignasl »

Because all their wealth are already put into society. Where do you think all the factories comes from? Who do you think employs all the people? Who creates products and services that people want and which improves people's lives? Billionaires do not sleep on the bag of cash - their wealth is already tied up to the things they are already doing. And as for non profit activities probably all of them do it for the causes they believe in. Universities, libraries, research, art, charities etc. I never understood this demonstration of the rich people, like they are some kind of evil aliens who want to hurt "us good people". This communistic nonsense should just go.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#37

Post by CodeKommissar »

foobarchu wrote: post #31
ng12 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conveniently ignoring the part where Gawker was doing illegal things and therefore lost the lawsuit (getting a verbal smackdown from a judge in the process). Your argument only works if the lawsuits were baseless and/or frivolous. I'm not sure how you can throw shade on Thiel -- would it be any better if media companies could freely ignore the law as long as the affected individuals lack the funds to take them…

You're misinterpreting what i'm saying. Gawker did something illegal and they did deserve to pay for it. The issue is that Thiel had no direct connection to that incident. The issue is that he funded everything because they outed him as gay (completely legal), with the express goal of bankrupting them via lawsuit. He didn't want them to learn a lesson, he wanted to fucking end them. While he didn't do anything illega…

> they outed him as gay (completely legal)

Lol, I don't know about this.

If I were a pretty public outlet media and said to everyone "Hey! foobarchu is gay/tranny/whatever" (without your consent) and that affected your personal life, relationships with other people, etc. Wouldn't you think that is illegal? Or at least it should be in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#38

Post by Gustomaximus »

ignasl wrote: post #36

Because all their wealth are already put into society. Where do you think all the factories comes from? Who do you think employs all the people? Who creates products and services that people want and which improves people's lives? Billionaires do not sleep on the bag of cash - their wealth is already tied up to the things they are already doing. And as for non profit activities probably all of them do it for the caus…

I downvoted you for;

1) "This communistic nonsense should just go." This is taking the question to an extreme POV you want, not where the discussion was.

2) "Who do you think employs all the people?" Its worth recognising small businesses employs about 50% of the population and is contributing more new jobs than corporates these days.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#39

Post by ignasl »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #38
ignasl wrote: post #36

Because all their wealth are already put into society. Where do you think all the factories comes from? Who do you think employs all the people? Who creates products and services that people want and which improves people's lives? Billionaires do not sleep on the bag of cash - their wealth is already tied up to the things they are already doing. And as for non profit activities probably all of them do it for the caus…

I downvoted you for; 1) "This communistic nonsense should just go." This is taking the question to an extreme POV you want, not where the discussion was. 2) "Who do you think employs all the people?" Its worth recognising small businesses employs about 50% of the population and is contributing more new jobs than corporates these days.

It's OK I don't mind. 1. This was a bit of rant but questions like this are very related to communist's/socialist's "it's always someone else's fault". This is not productive nor is helpful. It's better to educate yourself on how economics work in the real world. Then you will have a chance to make the world a better place yourself instead of "let's use force to take from productive people and give it to unproductive people" which is not that good of an idea in the first place from economics perspective (proven empirically in many countries many times).

2. Nit-picking on my my "all". I didn't mean that literally. Billionaires' wealth is tied up and even if they would sell everything (and give everything to charity) someone else (who takes over) would be even richer which most likely would result in less competition, less innovation, higher prices and lower quality to everyone. Lack of understanding in how economy works results in questions like this.

Re: Ask HN: Why are billionaires not giving more money away?

#40

Post by segmondy »

sushid wrote: post #29
segmondy wrote: post #25

Why should they? Why can't the poor help themselves? Most of us won't be poor if we only spent on the essentials. Stop buying material crap. Foster good relationship with family, neighbors and community. Community service at large and help each other. The wealthy get rich because we keep buying more of the crap they make that we don't need.

Because the most marginalized in our society are so screwed. They're dealt the worst cards. It's easy to shout Randian quotes from your high tower, but when you come from impoverished backgrounds barely making ends meet, something like an unexpected parking ticket or an injury can mean going homeless.

You have no idea where I come from.
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