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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

#481

Post by mgraczyk »

cyberax wrote: post #439
ok123456 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not curing polio, though. His polio program is spreading it because they use a live virus, and a low percentage of the population is getting it. People are now getting paralytic polio from others who got the vaccine. This is just one example of the Kreuger-Dunning that permeates all aspects of the Gates Foundation. His interventions have been mainly disasters, distorted public policy, and gobbled up biotech IP i…

> He's not curing polio, though. His polio program is spreading it because they use a live virus Wow. Just wow. Where the heck do you get this garbage from?

OPV unfortunately does cause paralytic polio disease indirectly by infecting unvaccinated people. It's worth it IMO because the total number of paralyzed people has decreased, but in the long term we have to switch to IPV to completely eliminate polio. This will take decades and many billions of dollars though.

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

#482

Post by throwawaymaths »

lillecarl wrote: post #447
pnw wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Denmark, Sweden and Finland combined don't even have 20% of the Norwegian fund. Norway is basically the Saudi Arabia of Europe.

Norway is basically anything but the Saudi Arabia of Europe. The ONLY thing that is similar is that they both have oil and natural gas in their territory. It's a gross comparison.

Well they do both have monarchs! Though the royal palace in Oslo is a public park. As I was strolling the park, to my surprise I attended a quick fanfare as the king left his palace and his driver (I presume) almost ran over a dumb kid that darted in front of the royal sedan. then at the end of the royal avenue, at the foot of the most glorious mathematician sculpture, the royal sedan turned a corner directly into rush hour traffic, which his highness had to endure just like the rest of us commoners.

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

#483

Post by Beijinger »

Not all of his wealth is so clean as it looks.

The competition against Linux was often nasty. Governments often got a bad deal. Think Munich and Linux.

And I still remember ugly stories about licensing of windows and Africa. This was not necessary Billy who did it, but he profited from the corruption.

Admire Linus. Admire Richard Stallmann. Don't admire Bill.

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

#484

Post by qingcharles »

nostromo wrote: post #459
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…

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…

Lobbying is ugly, but essential in the system we live in. You have to be pragmatic about it :(

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

#486

Post by toast0 »

9283409232 wrote: post #35
otteromkram wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone stopping him, et al, from just paying more? There's an option for that on US tax forms (though I'm guessing tax returns for billionaires are a little more complex than what a Form 1040 can handle).

People suggest this often whenever a rich person says they should pay more taxes but unless I can specifically say I want my extra taxes to go to a specific government agency or office, I have no idea why I would do this. Just so Boeing can get a larger contract with my extra taxes? At that point I would just donate directly to causes that support what I want instead of dealing with the middle man.

You can give to state and local governments and get a federal tax deduction [1], per 26 U.S. Code § 170 (c) (1)

> (1) A State, a possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of any of the foregoing, or the United States or the District of Columbia, but only if the contribution or gift is made for exclusively public purposes.

But not if you make a gift to federal agency (unless that's listed somewhere else)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/170

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

#487

Post by toast0 »

999900000999 wrote: post #133

>The Gates Foundation’s mission remains rooted in the idea that where you are born should not determine your opportunities. Arguably he's already done so much for billions of people. Had typing on computers not became the main way businesses communicate , anyone with bad, handwriting would be stuck in menial work. When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anyth…

> When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything.

I dunno, my 3rd grade teacher in the 80s said of my handwriting "We've done all we can do. He'll have a secretary, so it'll be ok"

Sadly, I never had a secretary; but my terrible handwriting hasn't been a major deterrent to getting things done.

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

#488

Post by yupitsme123 »

abound wrote: post #411
yodsanklai wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue with Gates is that he wants to fight climate change, yet he's personally an environmental disaster with his yachts and jets. I'm not saying he has to live like a monk to be credible, and maybe his foundation is doing a good job (never looked into it), but either he's an hypocrite, or I disagree with him on how to fight climate change.

I think it's pretty clearly hypocritical, but also if his actions are (far) more than offsetting his own emissions and impact, it's still a net positive. Of course, he could choose to not live a super-high consumption lifestyle in addition to his climate philanthopy, but if I had to take one or the other, I'd rather him continue throwing money at climate work than take fewer private jet rides.

How do we measure if something is a net positive or negative when we're talking about global-level decisions?

This has always been the sticking point for me when it comes to supporting large charities.

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

#489

Post by yupitsme123 »

lillecarl wrote: post #424
yodsanklai wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue with Gates is that he wants to fight climate change, yet he's personally an environmental disaster with his yachts and jets. I'm not saying he has to live like a monk to be credible, and maybe his foundation is doing a good job (never looked into it), but either he's an hypocrite, or I disagree with him on how to fight climate change.

While it might be hypocritical it doesn't matter whatsoever what he does with his personal life if his foundation is pouring billions into making the world a better place. Helping people out of poverty is really bad for the environment too but I don't think we should be complaining when someone does that. On a global scale his yacht(s?) and private jets are nothing, and if it helps him do good by establishing/maintai…

I'll ask the same question I've asked elsewhere because "I want to believe:" How do you measure how much someone has made the world a better place? Especially when so much of their actions, their consequences, and their second and third order effects are either unknowable or papered over by PR campaigns.

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

#490

Post by PaulRobinson »

jncfhnb wrote: post #479
reaperducer wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Says who? They can (ethically) invest it and fund programs off a 5%-8% or better return. They can find new things to do. They can donate some of it into health research that is currently under-funded.
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