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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

#321

Post by zozbot234 »

kridsdale1 wrote: post #319
zozbot234 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. You seem to have very weird ideas about how EA funding works in practice. Long-termism is flashy and peculiar so it gets a lot of excess visibility, but "fighting poverty" tends to get the bulk of EA money, and the most…

Well all we in HN-adjacent spaces hear about is the EA people getting rich so they can build a RoccoBasilisc-countering super weapon or something.

That's the e/acc folks actually. Different acronym.

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

#322

Post by lobotomizer »

sailingparrot wrote: post #99
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is literally buying indulgence for his earlier sins.

Ah yes, saving millions of kids’ lives through vaccination and virtually eradicating polio is a way to make up for … checks notes… bundling a browser into an OS and not being nice with open source. Some grass is in need of touching.

More like making up for enabling genocide through critical support for the Israeli and US militaries.

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

#323

Post by bilbo0s »

beloch wrote: post #315

The one problem Gates doesn't seem willing to tackle in earnest is the billionaire problem. i.e. Somebody close to the control of money funnels a disproportionate (based on expertise, intelligence, effort, contribution, etc.) amount to themselves. They quickly come to view this as the just natural order and view anyone who disagrees as a communist hater. Elon Musk is the current best example. Despite spending most of…

Sorry. But you don't get to be a billionaire working as an executive.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm all for reigning in excessive executive pay. We should do so in any case. However, what I'm trying to say is, we can reign in executive pay as much as we like, and billionaires will simply siphon that leftover money to themselves in addition to the money they currently hoover up.

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

#324

Post by foldr »

gambiting wrote: post #224
foldr wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but this information is easily available by Googling ‘Bill Gates Epstein’. I’m not trying to be snarky. It’s just a widely covered news story.

So I googled exactly that, and what comes up is mostly about Epstein trying to extort gates: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/21/jeffrey-epst... Gates addressing their relationship: https://people.com/bill-gates-addresses-jeffrey-epstein-frie... https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/business/bill-gates-regrets-j... Articles saying that they met "sometimes for a few hours": https://pagesix.com/2025/04/15/celebrit…

This is the first result for me:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-...

"Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past".

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

#326

Post by newfocogi »

Zaheer wrote: post #104
Ozzie_osman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://charityvest.org/ is a great modern DAF tool. I use it to get 1 single charity receipt at the end of the year and track my giving.

Another happy CharityVest user here. I recommend it to everyone I talk to when DAFs are remotely relevant to the conversation.

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

#327

Post by derektank »

_bin_ wrote: post #88
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…

[flagged]

As someone who grew up in a Christian faith tradition that said Jesus Christ died for the sins of all of us and that we are all made in God's image, I find this position so bizarre. If we are all children of God, why should I prioritize the well being of a single stranger in Ohio over twenty strangers in Kenya? I can understand an argument for prioritizing one's family, especially if you are a parent, or even one's immediate community, but while I personally love America, the vast majority of Americans are as distant from me as anyone else in the globe.

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

#328

Post by zozbot234 »

jorvi wrote: post #316
toast0 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state goes out of their way to encourage it. Let's say you just won the startup lottery and you've got a significant amount of now tradable stock. Some of which was early exercised and the cost basis is effectively zero. Some of which was RSUs or non-qualified options and you owe ordinary income. And that you're way over into the top tax brackets. If your zero cost basis stock is Qualified Small Business Stock (Q…

That is not their argument. You lowering your tax rate and giving that money to charity isn't magicking more money into the world, it is just a different allocation. The government's tax income is allocated by the masses (in theory anyway). It is fair and dispassionate. Philanthropy / charity is picking winners and losers based on your personal whims, and for many it is about gaining social capital.

> You lowering your tax rate and giving that money to charity isn't magicking more money into the world, it is just a different allocation.

This is only ever true if you assume that government tax spending is 100% efficient, with nary a fraction of a cent being wasted. I don't think that's a safe assumption.

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

#329

Post by [deleted] »

antisthenes wrote: post #285
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.

> 1. Get a bunch of money by any means necessary. This assumes the money would not have been better spent by giving it to the workers of the company that generated it in the first place.

[deleted]

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

#330

Post by srvo »

This is the way that foundations and endowments should operate.

Too many well-intentioned organizations wind up milquetoast tax-exempt hedge funds aimed primarily at self-preservation because the received wisdom is that they should focus on building endowments and keep their withdrawal rates below 4% in order to achieve immortality.

I'm a big believer in research-driven philanthropy and mission-driven organizations. But i've seen the institutional desire for self-preservation supersede essential purposes at a few of them, with disastrous implications for their effectiveness.

The Gates foundation probably controls ~5% of the ~$2T that charitable foundations have in endowments globally. If the majority of these organizations adopted these sorts of depletion goals, their program budgets could probably more than double.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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