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Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

forbes.com

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Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#51

Post by jjeaff »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #24

> While many wealthy philanthropists enlist an army of publicists to trumpet their donations, Feeney went to great lengths to keep his gifts secret. Crazy respect for this. Many times billionaire charitable foundations are just tax preferred ways of building your image or amassing influence. Bill Gates has done a lot of good, but his charitable work also served to redeem his image from that of the ruthless businessma…

Sure, but what benefit does that power get him except to accomplish the goals of his philanthropy? He doesn't appear to be trying to amass more wealth.

He needs to amass connections and power if he wants to accomplish his philanthropic goals.

As for fixing his image, sure, maybe that was part of it. But I doubt it. He could have just made a few really big donations and then went off to himself to enjoy his wealth.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#52

Post by khalilravanna »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #2

Mad respect, not letting that amount of money get to your head and not wasting it on vain stuff surely takes some crazy discipline.

Absolutely. Especially being an American. We have such a materialistic, maximalist culture. There’s definitely a psychological element here to be able to tune out all those negative messages (“Why don’t I have a nicer car/house/yacht than Alice/Bob?”). I’d be interested on where he falls on the satisficer/maximizer scale.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#53

Post by bena »

olivermarks wrote: post #42
leesec wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

https://www.ft.com/content/f999c4e4-78a2-4f83-9beb-91c15dccd... Opinion Coronavirus treatment Bill & Melinda Gates: Vaccine fairness will make us all safer | Free to read Sharing Covid-19 jabs equitably would result in fewer deaths and faster control everywhere'

What about this article? Context, provide it.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#54

Post by hogFeast »

zozbot234 wrote: post #36
hogFeast wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also donate your time.

Well, if you're working in paid employment it will usually be a lot more effective to put in some more time at work, and give away some of the resulting income. "Donating your time" can of course be genuinely worthwhile if you're, e.g. a scientist who might want to do useful research on globally-relevant, critical issues; just not very much otherwise.

Yes, you are right. Because there is always someone else who is paid less than you who will run around and do the actual work whilst you take all the credit. Genius.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#55

Post by cbanek »

sandworm101 wrote: post #40

>>> When I first met him in 2012, he estimated he had set aside about $2 million for his and his wife's retirement. I don't know about everyone else on HN, but having 2mil in the bank is not my definition of "Broke". I want to see what trusts have been setup. What life estates has he retained? I credit him for giving most all of it away, but "broke" doesn't mean you are worth 0.0001% of some huge number. Broke means…

With all due reference to Shai-Hulud, I'd say broke has a lot of different possible meanings. It could mean you declared bankruptcy, have negative net worth, or maybe just like 99% gone (while you don't think it means that by definition, and I agree, I think socially we could agree with that. Someone with a dollar in their pocket isn't broke, but is also broke.).

If anything, having enough money to take care of his needs I think is good. If he was hiding his car from the repo man, it's probably because he's not paying payments on it, and therefore all the people that rely on those payments for their jobs you're kind of "stealing" from, in that you aren't fulfilling the legal and financial obligation. And that doesn't seem very charitable either?

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#56

Post by lefstathiou »

tomcat27 wrote: post #35

I find those people who determine to earn big and then give away big very interesting minds. Their reasons to earn are most of the times very different from a typical person.

Speculating here as I am not spectacularly wealthy... I suspect there is more to relate to than first meets the eye.

Chuck is human like all of us. Most people have to spend some amount of time solving for generating enough capital to meet their (and their family’s) needs - whatever they may be. The fabulously wealthy / successful did too once upon a time but at some point crossed a threshold the vast vast majority of people - which I will refer to as “typical” - will never, and that is having enough to do and buy literally anything they could possibly desire indefinitely.

Thus the motivation to keep on going professionally (ie to earn more and more, something that drives typical people who are solving to meet needs), I suspect, changes to things money can’t buy which are nevertheless “typical”: The desire for impact.

Some want it in their life times, others want it for generations (legacy). Some want it in their church or on their job. Others seek and have the means to achieve it on a global scale.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#58

Post by mulmen »

Multiplayer wrote: post #5

I cannot get my head around this. To be that good at making money and that intent at giving it away is such a massive paradox not to mention paradigm shift from how we typically discuss wealth and wealth accumulators. Looking for video interviews....

I don't see a paradox at all. He made a lot of money by being good at operating organizations. He seems to have given away his money by working with organizations. He just wanted to make an impact on the world and he did.

I don't pretend to know the motivations of Bezos or even Musk (even though I think he has been clear) but I see this as consistent with what Feeney did.

I can at least conceive of a thought process like "I can help humanity now and in the future by making money to fund new businesses that would not otherwise exist." Maybe the best way to contribute is to give away money to charity, maybe it is to start a rocket company. I don't think either of those are wrong, and I think they can have the same base motivation.

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#59

Post by BrainInAJar »

dougmccune wrote: post #8
sudhirj wrote: post #6

This is a role model I can actually appreciate. I can't figure out why this is the first time I've heard of him. I've seen lots of news about people buying expensive shit, but the fact that this has never come to my attention is a horrible indicator of what the media chooses to report on.

> While many wealthy philanthropists enlist an army of publicists to trumpet their donations, Feeney went to great lengths to keep his gifts secret. Seems like that was by design.

> Seems like that was by design.

It is. Philanthropy exists to launder the reputations of the rich, on the one hand, and are paternalistic on the other. The only things that get funding are things that can attract the attention of our "betters." If we had taxed them on the front end to the point they couldn't become billionaires in the first place then people in general (through democracy) can decide what causes are valuable. And with the added bonus that the negative effects of they got to be billionaires don't cause more problems (Feeney worked in private equity. PE are strip & sell firms)

Re: Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

#60

Post by zuminator »

sandworm101 wrote: post #47
Invictus0 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your point? That in his 80s he should be struggling for rent money after giving over 8 billion to charity?

The point is that Forbes shouldn't be using terms like broke to describe millionaires when there are millions of people who are actually broke living incredibly difficult lives.

Are they former billionaires though? The point of him being "broke" isn't that he has nothing, it's that he has shared almost all of what he had, to a much greater extent than most of us could ever dream of.
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