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

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#41

Post by tptacek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:41 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #37

tptacek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh for fuck's sake. How do you think a double-digit-billion endowment gets managed? By Bill Gates sitting around with a copy of the Wall Street Journal and a cup of coffee, picking stocks? No. The money manager roles for the Gates Foundation are extremely serious, and extremely high-status. The guy who runs money management for the Gates Foundation was the former CFO of Merck. Presumably, managing the endowment for a…

Dude, wtf. How about a private juvenile detention centers ran by a company with a history of child abuse in those prisons? At least more due diligence?

Circulate a petition to end the private prison industry? I will sign it. Come up with a credible plan to fix that public policy problem? I'll donate.

Meanwhile: if you're going to manage a forty billion dollar endowment to maximize its impact on global poverty and disease, you're going to be working with large-scale corporate debt and equity. It would be very difficult to maintain diversified exposure to those markets without investing in something that would piss someone off.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#42

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:42 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #40

tptacek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article we're talking about does not accuse the Gates Foundation of investing in apartheid South Africa.

Yes, it just says he invests in oil companies in Africa and child detention centers. I'm sorry you just are familiar with the mcdonalds logo and nothing else.

[deleted]

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#43

Post by justin66 » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:42 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...

Everyone's focused on the problem of whether the foundation should be focused on societally responsible investment, but without noticing the problem with the article's analysis: to get a handle on whether they're investing in that fashion you need to measure the market cap of those decidedly irresponsible companies against those same companies representation in the overall market.

My reaction looking at that list was "wow, he managed to invest less than a billion in oil companies." They do make up a fair chunk of the market, after all.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#44

Post by tptacek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:42 PM UTC

mateuszb wrote: post #40

tptacek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article we're talking about does not accuse the Gates Foundation of investing in apartheid South Africa.

Yes, it just says he invests in oil companies in Africa and child detention centers. I'm sorry you just are familiar with the mcdonalds logo and nothing else.

Getting angry at me isn't going to make your argument any more valid.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#45

Post by judk » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:44 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #38

graycat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what is the role of his wife and her schooling from nuns?

I don't know, but modern Catholic nuns are kind of bad-ass. For instance, the Ursulines who taught Melinda Gates recently gave a middle finger to the Catholic hierarchy and vocally defended Gates' work despite its support for contraception. Wherever you look for close-minded reactionary people stuck in the 1950s chastising members of their own church for unapproved good works, chances are you'll see nuns on the other…

Do also note that the top of that hierarchy, the current Pope, is dragging the ethical values of the Catholic Church forward through the centuries, despite significant baggage he can't be expected to just discard (though he should if he could)

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#46

Post by ArtDev » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:45 PM UTC

matthewmacleod wrote: post #36

I don't really get the canonisation. I'm very happy the the Gates' foundation is doing good work. You'd be a fool to say that it wasn't. However, I don't believe that the tech industry should be proud as a result, nor do I think that there is a particular difference between the foundation and some other charities, nor do I understand the obvious astroturfing. I especially don't think that the act of charity somehow e…

The Gates Foundation is unlike any other charity or foundation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundati...

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#47

Post by stesch » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:47 PM UTC

How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates: http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#48

Post by tptacek » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:48 PM UTC

judk wrote: post #45

tptacek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but modern Catholic nuns are kind of bad-ass. For instance, the Ursulines who taught Melinda Gates recently gave a middle finger to the Catholic hierarchy and vocally defended Gates' work despite its support for contraception. Wherever you look for close-minded reactionary people stuck in the 1950s chastising members of their own church for unapproved good works, chances are you'll see nuns on the other…

Do also note that the top of that hierarchy, the current Pope, is dragging the ethical values of the Catholic Church forward through the centuries, despite significant baggage he can't be expected to just discard (though he should if he could)

The Jesuits are another bright spot in the Catholic church. I had four years of Jesuit high school, and everything people like us seem to like about Pope Frank plays right to the Jesuit type.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#49

Post by ArtDev » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:49 PM UTC

pizza234 wrote: post #30

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 feel exaclty the opposite, of both the technology industry, and Bill gates. It's really easy to be charitable when you can't even count the money you have. In addition to that, it's also easy to invest your time in charity when you left a company you worked for, with exceptional intensity, for a life, and suddenly you have nothing to do anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Bill Gates is "evil". I'm sayi…

The Gates Foundation is different than other charities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundati...

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#50

Post by gfodor » Thu, Dec 26, 2013, 11:49 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #17

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.

Yeah right. Most of the people on HN will never quit the game, and will keep trying to make more money until they have one foot in the grave. (And no, I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with this.)

Gates got to a point where he knew his time as a competitive capitalist was over, and that his time as a generous philanthropist had begun. This isn't about net worth, this is about making that choice at a point where you still are physically, mentally, and financially able to have an impact.

Anyone who has a good exit has sufficient resources to no longer work and could make a similar choice, even if they won't have the same net impact as Gates. But most of them don't. Most of the people at Gates' level don't either. It's commendable.