You're going to see a lot of cynicism in this thread so I want to be a dissenting voice. This is a great thing. I'm glad the ideas behind the Giving Pledge are catching on.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
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Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#12Stop letting these crooks get away with this tax shelter move while applauding them. It should be called what it is.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#13No post body was provided.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#14Bill Gates pledged the same and yet his wealth hasn't reduced. Worse, the philanthropy has been targetted ideologically (like encouraging private schools) and somehow keeps ending up favouring companies he has ownership in.
The pledge doesn’t mean dumb-throw money at any org you can find.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#15Realistically how can he do that without tanking the stock price? He owns 100B in Amazon stock. Anyone with knowledge care to chime in on how he could ever access it? For comparison, Vanguard and Blackrock (shares owned by little folks like us) own 69B and 59B. Mackenzie, his ex-wife, owns 33B and has pledged to give hers away as well on The Giving Pledge.
He won't sell it all at once. Bill Gates used to own lots of Microsoft stock. Over time he sold it off and diversified, to the point that it's now only about 25% of his net worth.
The key thing is that over time, Microsoft transitioned to a point where Bill Gates wasn't running things day-to-day and investors became comfortable with him not having any control. At that point, him selling shares was no big deal.
At the other end of the extreme would be someone like Elon Musk, where Tesla's stock price is almost entirely dependent on him being at the helm. If he were to walk away now, the shares would tank in value.
Jeff Bezos is somewhere in between. Clearly, Amazon would run okay without him, but he still has some involvement. He certainly can't sell all of his shares, but if he sells over time and makes it clear (and credible) that he is selling in order to use his money elsewhere (rather than trying to time the market because he thinks the stock is overpriced), the share prices of Amazon should hold up just fine.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#16Quoted post unavailable.
Surely you have heard opposite opinions to your own that are not reductive (as you have written yours)? I.e. I understand that you might disagree with the opinions of others, but I don't understand the implication that you should feel "like a lunatic", since that usually implies that you don't comprehend the opinions of others (which is different from disagreeing).
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#17Bill Gates pledged the same and yet his wealth hasn't reduced. Worse, the philanthropy has been targetted ideologically (like encouraging private schools) and somehow keeps ending up favouring companies he has ownership in.
What does that mean his wealth hasn't reduced? Any money that he's given away (and he's given away a lot) has reduced his wealth. He'd be worth more if hadn't given it away.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#18No post body was provided.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#19Quoted post unavailable.
The global income distribution model (farmers in India -> Jeff Bezos) is problematic.
But it's such a chaotic system that anyone claiming to have the solution (similar to anyone claiming there is no problem) is likely lying.
The only solution (to me) that even starts to make sense is some sort of forced worker ownership, but lord knows what the details of that might look like.
Re: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth
#20Bill Gates pledged the same and yet his wealth hasn't reduced. Worse, the philanthropy has been targetted ideologically (like encouraging private schools) and somehow keeps ending up favouring companies he has ownership in.
Why should his wealth reduce?
If I give $10 to charity, my wealth is reduced by $10. The naive assumption is that if Bill Gates gives $10B to charity, his wealth is also reduced by $10B.
Can you explain why the naive assumption is wrong? Because I actually can't, not without more thought and research than I've given it.