Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013 • Hacker News Board

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#11

Post by jblow » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:47 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

Not a carefully-written article. When you buy stock in a public company, that company is not getting your money -- the seller of the stock is! So if you buy a Pepsi stock or a Shell stock, you are investing in that stock, but not investing in the company in a traditional sense (in which they get money from you and expect to pay out more money later, with the surplus coming from their activities).

[There is the small factor that the company usually owns some of the stock and demand for the stock usually pushes the price up slightly, the company's stock assets do benefit slightly in a case like this, but this doesn't matter unless they sell, which is a rare activity compared to general volume of investment.]

Since the article does not differentiate between stocks, bonds, and loans, it is essentially useless. I guess they didn't care enough to differentiate, and just wanted to say bad stuff about the foundation; or, maybe they just don't understand finance much at all, and didn't think about it.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#12

Post by benched » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:48 PM UTC

salient wrote: post #6

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

Seems like the Gates Foundation is mostly a front for a profit-seeking venture.

Please explain what sense it would make for a gargantuan liquid fund not to try to invest profitably?

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#13

Post by tptacek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:50 PM UTC

Daishiman wrote: post #5

I wish he were to post something similar regarding climate change and energy developments.

I wish someone was working as hard on climate change as Gates is on preventable disease in the developing works. But I do not wish that Gates worked any less diligently on the problems he's chosen. Global poverty and disease in the developing world are, particularly in the way they stifle the potential of a huge fraction of the world's people, root causes of most of our other big problems.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#14

Post by icegreentea » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:51 PM UTC

salient wrote: post #6

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

Seems like the Gates Foundation is mostly a front for a profit-seeking venture.

If you read the tax return, you'll see that your statement is literally not true.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#15

Post by jblow » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:51 PM UTC

salient wrote: post #6

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

Seems like the Gates Foundation is mostly a front for a profit-seeking venture.

It is the other way around. If you are doing effective altruism, you want to make sure you have money coming in that you can be altruistic with.

The bit about Walmart was especially badly done. If the author of this article thinks Walmart employees are poor on the same scale as the poor that the foundation targets, he really has no clue about world poverty. If the minimum standard of living throughout the world were equal to that of a typical Walmart employee, the world would be tremendously better off.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#16

Post by svenkatesh » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:52 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #10

paul_f wrote: post #2

I am proud that the technology industry, of which I am a part, has created Bill Gates, a living saint.

Mmmh, I'm trying really hard not to be contrarian for the sake of it but "a living saint" seems a little too strong an expression. I mean, of course what he does is awesome and I'll probably never be in a position to do anything remotely that significant in my life but I feel it's easier to do that kind of stuff when you're that insanely rich. That being said he could probably as easily not do it, so props to him for…

But, there are many wealthy people who do not give their time and money over to philanthropy.

Conversely, there are many who are not wealthy who also do lots of charity work (could be something as small as volunteering in a soup kitchen on Christmas or Thanksgiving, helping out at the local hospital, spending time at a nursing or retirement home, etc.). I know many people who fall into this category.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#17

Post by tptacek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:52 PM UTC

paul_f wrote: post #2

I am proud that the technology industry, of which I am a part, has created Bill Gates, a living saint.

I don't think he's a saint. I think a lot of people on HN, given the same resources Gates has, would do substantially similar things with their lives. It seems like incredibly rewarding and important work.

I'm just really glad he chose to do it.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#18

Post by fridek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 10:52 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

It's hard to invest in poverty or only in businesses with very high moral standards. I think none of the listed companies is particularly evil and they just happen to give the best return.

Discarding what Gates does just because he still thinks and invests like a businessman is a little unfair. There are plenty of charities that fail to deliver just because they are too concerned with being perfect in every little step they take. It's not like you can take all the money donated, go to Africa and "help". You need to invest, do marketing, rent offices and so on. The better it is executed, the more impact per $ donated you get.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#19

Post by dbalan » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:02 PM UTC

Health activists in India, observers the states push for pentavalent vaccines with suspicion. They are more expensive and does not really provide the cost-to-benefit.Also, experts are divided on the fact that there are 18 deaths reported on which state has confirmed 3 being caused by the vaccine.

EDIT: Context - gates pushes pentavalent vaccine being the exciting thing for next year. [1] http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/centre-confirms-three-... [2] http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/penta... [3] http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/policy-draft-backs-new...

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#20

Post by MetaCosm » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:05 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #4

Things you might have missed in 2013: The Gates Foundation's Hypocritical Investments http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

That article is so cringe-worthy. As if investing in McDonald's is in some way against the goals of the organization. The organization's goal isn't to reduce McDonald's stock price by a few points, or help people who can afford McDonald's eat more healthy. It is to combat, if not cure, Malaria, HIV, Polio, Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, various intestinal problems (millions die a year from diarrhea) and hundreds of other horrific maiming illnesses that ravage many places. It is to invest in technologies for vaccines, energy, clean water and attempt to end malnutrition (read: starvation).

Even today, 21 children die of preventable causes... per minute. The Gates foundation is attacking all the more prevalent causes (70%+). It is rare to see an article miss the point so astoundingly hard, while managing to be completely without empathy AND clueless. Just utterly detached from reality.