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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

#471

Post by Blankono »

_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…

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Sooo you use a christian word to describe your strategy?

Fine but do you know what it actually means to be poor? Its not the american neighbour who has a house, heat, electricity and food who can't afford a holiday.

Its the human beings living day by day trying to feed themselves.

Or are you from a super crazy poor country? Might be, but you have clearly internet (which means, access to knowledge, and richnes in comparision to the kid dying of hunger somewere else)

And now lets really talk about your "Ordo Amoris": If you do live in the USA, do you actually understand HOW MUCH everyone of us destroys countries around the globe? Climate Change? Resource Import? Cheap Labor?

We are all rich because WE exploit every other country around us in way or the other. The least thing we can do, is helping. And theglobal agreement to actually help is just a drop on a hot stone. Even that gets critizied.

Do you just use this ordo amoris because you are a christian? If so, i don't think you will go to heaven with your live philosophy.

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

#472

Post by kurthr »

reaperducer wrote: post #460
nostromo wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked there and would encourage you not to do that. It'd be smarter to see who they are giving money to (which is all public) and give directly to those orgs. The Gates foundation itself spends a lot of money on consultants, "government engagement" (aka lobbying by another name), and fancy dinners. That's fine or maybe even noble for a family foundation, but it's probably not something individuals would want to fu…

Exactly. He doesn't need 20 years. That's just him trying to draw attention to himself. If he was really serious about giving away his money, he could write a single check to the Red Cross || Doctors Without Borders || insert charity here and in five minutes be done with it. The world doesn't need more vanity charities. It needs its existing charities to be better funded.

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

#473

Post by SteveNuts »

reaperducer wrote: post #460
nostromo wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked there and would encourage you not to do that. It'd be smarter to see who they are giving money to (which is all public) and give directly to those orgs. The Gates foundation itself spends a lot of money on consultants, "government engagement" (aka lobbying by another name), and fancy dinners. That's fine or maybe even noble for a family foundation, but it's probably not something individuals would want to fu…

Exactly. He doesn't need 20 years. That's just him trying to draw attention to himself. If he was really serious about giving away his money, he could write a single check to the Red Cross || Doctors Without Borders || insert charity here and in five minutes be done with it. The world doesn't need more vanity charities. It needs its existing charities to be better funded.

That much wealth could probably fund every food bank in the country indefinitely, even at extremely conservative returns.

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

#474

Post by keybored »

adamc wrote: post #286
macintux wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ‘restricted set’ is incredibly powerful politically at the moment.

This is true, because Trump caters to them. It isn't clear that their numbers drove this -- I think rather it is a function of their willingness to be completely loyal to him, which is what he craves.

Let’s not Trumpwash history. There are critiques of Bill Gates philanthropy which have no link to anything Trump or his supporters have ever said.

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

#475

Post by nicce »

jayd16 wrote: post #465
nicce wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't have general system in place that would somehow prevent this. The world runs on capitalism and everyone needs food and roof. Whoever has the power to give them or take them, has the total power, and can play with the system more they have wealth. Social democracy is some sort of middle-ground but it is not enough, because it is not applied everywhere equally, and it is hard to define what is selfish and non-…

Laissez-faire capitalism is not synonymous with all forms of capitalism. We could and have in the past curbed runaway wealth and power. Pretending nothing can be done is, at best, ignoring history.

Absolutely something should be done. We just haven't found the method yet and we should keep looking for it.

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

#476

Post by Blankono »

_bin_ wrote: post #334
derektank wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

This is a pretty common question that's raised: how can we square this with loving our fellow man? The short answer is Christianity isn't a utilitarian belief system. While God loves everyone equally, he puts some of us closer together in love: family, friends, neighbors, countrymen. This incurs a greater obligation , plus we ought to love more those who are closer to us. Sadly, a lot of Christian faiths teach dogma…

I find your picture of a god as you describe it, as something i would not want to have.

This interpretation sounds like a great excuse to stop helping others and spending your time behind a computer instead of actually being out there and helping.

If you would really believe, do you think Jesus would sit at home and comment instead of helping others?

And lets talk about helping. Who needs help? Your neighbour who has food, electricity, heating or a human child somewere else dying because of food? The same food which you probably throw away every day?

Nonetheless, while we are at it: What is your excuse that you believe in a god who is almighty but creates humas who then starve? Doesn't that sound more like a shitty god? Or if we play devils advocate: The Devil does the killing and god would actually like to see you and everyone else to help that human?

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

#477

Post by Blankono »

codr7 wrote: post #385
mikkelam wrote: post #310

>While I respect anyone’s decision to spend their days playing pickleball, that life isn’t quite for me—at least not full time. I’m lucky to wake up every day energized to go to work Bit of an unfair comparison though.. Most people dont retire from a job where you're literally handing people money. That said, I'm a huge fan Bill's work post-microsoft :)

He did a good job at cleaning up his public image, no doubt that cost quite a fortune. Still the same greedy asshole though.

I don't think at all he is a greedy asshole. He did more good than anywone else on the planet at this point.

Alone his money and the pledge he pused is breathaking.

Why would you say he is a greedy asshole while he spends all his money to help humans?

Trump is greedy. Musk thinks probably he is good but is greedy as f and wants to go to mars because he thinks earth cant be saved anymore. But Gates?

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

#478

Post by threetonesun »

skybrian wrote: post #444
jorvi wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. But taking the combined $140 billion net worth of Bill and Melinda, about 30% (or whatever 'fair' rate you want to assume) shouldn't have been theirs to give away. Let them spend the other part however they want. What I find kind of interesting is that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet argue that they should be taxed more, but they don't do anything to further that goal aside from media soundbites and headlines. Th…

Some government programs are good, but if it went to the US government then Trump could cancel them. (Unless the courts stop it.) It seems fortunate that some charitable funds aren't subject to that risk. They have other risks, but they seem lower. In an imperfect world, government funding alone seems insufficiency diversified. That's too much power in one place.

Charitable funds fall victim to the same fundamental issue, leadership is more interested in benefiting themselves than putting the money towards the aims of the charity. In general I donate to places local to me. I'd much rather see a bench at a local park than hold on to some hope that my money does something meaningful to a large international charity organization.

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

#479

Post by jncfhnb »

reaperducer wrote: post #460
nostromo wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked there and would encourage you not to do that. It'd be smarter to see who they are giving money to (which is all public) and give directly to those orgs. The Gates foundation itself spends a lot of money on consultants, "government engagement" (aka lobbying by another name), and fancy dinners. That's fine or maybe even noble for a family foundation, but it's probably not something individuals would want to fu…

Exactly. He doesn't need 20 years. That's just him trying to draw attention to himself. If he was really serious about giving away his money, he could write a single check to the Red Cross || Doctors Without Borders || insert charity here and in five minutes be done with it. The world doesn't need more vanity charities. It needs its existing charities to be better funded.

The Red Cross is not equipped to make effective use of all that money at once

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

#480

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #470
alabastervlog wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boiled down, all I'm really claiming is that some rich people spent a bunch of money on lobbying, largely in favor of making money better for buying influence and in favor of making it easier for the rich to get richer with some populist culture-war-stoking side-quests to drum up the necessary votes, and the effort was pretty successful. I don't think that's an out-there or "conspiracy like mind"ed take, especially g…

Except it's not what just happened. More billionaires supported the Harris ticket than the Trump ticket. It's just that Trump's pet billionaires -- especially one in particular -- hustled harder for him.

i don't want to speak for GP but they did say "a faction of the rich" and not "all billionaires"

again, i dont think this is a matter of political party. it's a matter of capital interference in politics.

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