A letter to our daughter

Post by fieryeagle » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 6:22 AM UTC

danielrm26 wrote: post #174

6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

Man tries to help the world with his money and he's greeted with criticism.

Post by adrianN » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 6:33 AM UTC

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #343

scoofy wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Koch, worth 44,200 million dollars, is donating literally millions?!? How generous of him to give away approximately 0.002% of his fortune here and there. Please be serious. This comparison is laughable, the ≈ $300M listed on his foundation is literally 0.7% of his net worth.

How much of your wealth do you donate?

Post by jsnathan » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 6:39 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #150

chc wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we define "power-hungry" so broadly that it encompasses merely wanting to make the world a better place, I'm not sure what use the term is anymore.

The problem is "better" is subjective, and its probably preferred that the majority of people determine what better is instead of the small minority of people with billions of dollars. I like the future Bill Gates and Elon Musk want to bring. I do not like the future the Koch Brother's envision.

Post by visakanv » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 6:43 AM UTC

andreyf wrote: post #257

danielrm26 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man tries to help the world with his money and he's greeted with criticism.

I don't think cynicism and criticism are the same here. This is the man that about a decade ago who called his users "dumb fucks" for trusting him with their personal data [1]. The same man who used failed password logins to Facebook to access a journalist's email address [2]. Now he's giving 99% of his wealth to a charity he controls. This is an awesome step: dynastic wealth is stupid. However, it will take a few mo…

Post by gnaritas » Wed, Dec 02, 2015, 6:49 AM UTC

mikeg8 wrote: post #172

6stringmerc wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair, but if you notice a great deal of the letter is simply telling the child about the great achievements and dreams of the parents - if there's one thing I've learned the hard way, it's that dreams are easy to put into words and fuckin' hell on wheels to make reality. Philanthropy is a good social construct, for sure. I guess maybe I just have some inherent bias against preaching from atop the mountain of w…

I think you were right in your initial comment about being "significantly jaded". The dude is literally trying as hard as he can to fix problems in the world but both your comments do little other than detract from his effort/energy.