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My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

gatesnotes.com

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Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#61

Post by Ozzie_osman »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #39

His foundation really does seem to do a good job with 'effective altruism'. There's a reason they're marked as secondary beneficiaries on all my accounts. Also, as a recommendation, you guys should look into whether your employer matches charitable donations to 501Cs in any amount. I find giving a solid chunk of my discretionary budget to charity every year lends a sense of purpose to a job that wouldn't otherwise ha…

For you (or other folks) working in tech and giving to charity, apart from corporate match, another couple pieces of advice are to consider a Donor Advised Fund. They are really easy to set up, and then you get some benefits, like the ability to "bunch" your donations (can help with tax deductions) or donate appreciated investments (like RSUs) without paying capital gains tax.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#63

Post by alabastervlog »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #44
RataNova wrote: post #33

How much power is concentrated in the hands of individuals... It's great that Gates is choosing to use that power philanthropically, but it also raises questions about the long-term role of private wealth in solving public problems.

Well, it's not as if the public sector is solving many problems these days. We seem to have decided, collectively, that we'd rather have more problems. At least that's what we've been voting for.

> We seem to have decided, collectively, that we'd rather have more problems.

... because a faction of the rich decided they wanted the poors to believe government can't do anything useful, and launched an ongoing decades-long propaganda campaign to that effect.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#64

Post by philosopher1234 »

skandium wrote: post #48

One of the great tragedies of the world is that while he is arguably the philanthropist with the highest positive impact in human history, a significant part of the population seems to still think he is the literal Antichrist.

Because, not despite. Let no good deed go unpunished.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#65

Post by willvarfar »

DavidSJ wrote: post #52
modo_mario wrote: post #3

Last time he pledged to give away half his wealth over x years didn't it basically tripple during that period?

MSFT is up 18x during that time and the S&P 500 is up 5x during that time. His investments are some mixture of MSFT and other things, so we might say he would have been up around 10x if he'd given no money away. Since his net worth is only up 3x, that means he gave away about 70% of his wealth.

He won't have given away 70% of his wealth. If he gave away a dollar at the beginning that is 10 dollars that dollar didn't turn into etc.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#66

Post by danvoell »

jarbus wrote: post #16

Say what you want, but I respect this a lot. Sure as hell beats giving it all to your kids.

And/or when you die. We need more people trying to make the world better while they are here instead of treating the finish line like the, well, finish line.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#67

Post by wing-_-nuts »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #61
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #39

His foundation really does seem to do a good job with 'effective altruism'. There's a reason they're marked as secondary beneficiaries on all my accounts. Also, as a recommendation, you guys should look into whether your employer matches charitable donations to 501Cs in any amount. I find giving a solid chunk of my discretionary budget to charity every year lends a sense of purpose to a job that wouldn't otherwise ha…

For you (or other folks) working in tech and giving to charity, apart from corporate match, another couple pieces of advice are to consider a Donor Advised Fund. They are really easy to set up, and then you get some benefits, like the ability to "bunch" your donations (can help with tax deductions) or donate appreciated investments (like RSUs) without paying capital gains tax.

Yep, I've considered a DAF and donating stock, but it wouldn't be eligible for my employer match.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#68

Post by Windchaser »

lagniappe wrote: post #8
earlyriser wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gates has been advocating for higher taxes to people like him for a while.

Look at outcomes, not words and ambitions.

>Look at outcomes, not words and ambitions.

Does Gates have the power to change tax code? "Look at outcomes" makes more sense when it's something you have at least a moderate amount of control over.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#69

Post by ascagnel_ »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #50

Gates seems like a real embodiment of "Effective Altruism". 1. Get a bunch of money by any means necessary. 2. Donate/invest in altruistic causes. Unfortunately, most people that use effective altruism to justify themselves hoarding wealth seem to forget the second part.

I was talking about this with a friend recently -- Romans flaunted their wealth by improving shared social infrastructure (open market spaces, parks, etc), and the robber barons of the 19th century flaunted their wealth by building cultural institutions (eg Carnegie libraries).

It seems like most "effective altruists" want to do things that help "humanity" but don't help "people" -- so developing technology to explore the stars is on the table, but fighting poverty is not.

Re: My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth

#70

Post by joezydeco »

You could maybe compensate all the people and companies you put out of business by throwing your weight around in the 80s and 90s.

Maybe throw Jerry Kaplan a billion or two for fucking up his launch of the Go Communicator.

Seeing downvotes, which means you haven't been around long enough to remember all the shit Gates pulled back in the go-go 90s. ANY new technology would instantly get a press release from Microsoft saying they were working on the same thing, leaving customers and investors to wait for Microsoft's product. Which most of the time never came or was stillborn. Gates was an asshole, and he might still be, but a tidal wave of greenwashing can fix anything in the good 'ol USA. Now he's a fucking saint, right?

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