Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
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Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
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Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#2Truly commendable that he would do this, but deeply terrible that a private citizen, no matter how wealthy, can beat governments to the punch on this kind of aid.
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#3Besides monarchs in the past, for the first time in the history of Planet Earth we have many people and corporations that have more money than governments and so with that comes the responsibility of "acting accordingly". I believe that in a good light this will continue to assist humanity in ways never thought of before as human ingenuity is always more nimble than large bureaucratic organizations.
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#4Besides monarchs in the past, for the first time in the history of Planet Earth we have many people and corporations that have more money than governments and so with that comes the responsibility of "acting accordingly". I believe that in a good light this will continue to assist humanity in ways never thought of before as human ingenuity is always more nimble than large bureaucratic organizations.
Andrew Carnegie definitely had "more money than governments". Same with other titans of that time.
He was a really shit person when in came to labor -- hiring literal private armies to straight up lay siege to his workers -- but he did basically create the "rich guy gives away his money as a social obligation" model of... maintaining... democratic... government? Or, to be less coy, model of staving off communist/socialist/fascist revolution. I truly and sincerely hope today's ultra billionaires are as smart and realistic as Carnegie in this respect.
Carnegie emphasized education in his giving. Limited success. His library movement was largely successful, but his trade school turned into yet another hyper expensive prestinge-driven private university. Although I guess it was the brith-place of a lot of the computer technologies that made the current crop of ultra billionaires rich.
I think we're over-due for someone to emphasize healthcare in their giving. (Gates did this, but not in the USA.) We're also over due for a labor backlash against this sort of obscene wealth concentration (and not even as a value-laden statement... just as a "lessons from history" thing, the pendulum will probably swing).
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#5Team Rubicon is another NGO that provides disaster relief.
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#6Besides monarchs in the past, for the first time in the history of Planet Earth we have many people and corporations that have more money than governments and so with that comes the responsibility of "acting accordingly". I believe that in a good light this will continue to assist humanity in ways never thought of before as human ingenuity is always more nimble than large bureaucratic organizations.
Andrew Carnegie definitely had "more money than governments". Same with other titans of that time. He was a really shit person when in came to labor -- hiring literal private armies to straight up lay siege to his workers -- but he did basically create the "rich guy gives away his money as a social obligation" model of... maintaining... democratic... government? Or, to be less coy, model of staving off communist/soci…
That trade school which is now CMU did not start out being a hyper expensive prestige driven university. For years prior to the computer era it was a humble university in Pittsburgh.
"In 1900, he donated $1 million for the creation of a technical institute for the city of Pittsburgh, envisioning a school where working-class men and women of Pittsburgh could learn practical skills, trades and crafts that would enhance their careers, lives and communities."
It was not until the dawn of the computer era that things started to change.
https://www.cmu.edu/about/history.html
See this link for more details.
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#7Besides monarchs in the past, for the first time in the history of Planet Earth we have many people and corporations that have more money than governments and so with that comes the responsibility of "acting accordingly". I believe that in a good light this will continue to assist humanity in ways never thought of before as human ingenuity is always more nimble than large bureaucratic organizations.
Who has more money than governments? Sergey Brin is worth about $65 billion. The US federal budget is ~$3 trillion _per year_
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Andrew Carnegie definitely had "more money than governments". Same with other titans of that time. He was a really shit person when in came to labor -- hiring literal private armies to straight up lay siege to his workers -- but he did basically create the "rich guy gives away his money as a social obligation" model of... maintaining... democratic... government? Or, to be less coy, model of staving off communist/soci…
That trade school which is now CMU did not start out being a hyper expensive prestige driven university. For years prior to the computer era it was a humble university in Pittsburgh. "In 1900, he donated $1 million for the creation of a technical institute for the city of Pittsburgh, envisioning a school where working-class men and women of Pittsburgh could learn practical skills, trades and crafts that would enhance…
Yeah, it served its intended purpose for a long time. It's extremely difficult for a wildly successful university from humble roots to stay true to its roots. Even public institutions mostly fail to stay accessible after becoming successful.
CMU has damn close to zero "working class men and women from Pittsburgh" in its student body these days, unless by "working class" you mean "parents were doctors, lawyers, and software engineers from shadyside/squill/fox chapel/etc." :(. On the other hand, it is one of the two big reasons Pittsburgh experienced a renaissance in the early 21st century (which continues to this day), and in that sense did achieve the goal of helping the Pittsburgh community thrive. Just not by elevating working class folk.
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#9Besides monarchs in the past, for the first time in the history of Planet Earth we have many people and corporations that have more money than governments and so with that comes the responsibility of "acting accordingly". I believe that in a good light this will continue to assist humanity in ways never thought of before as human ingenuity is always more nimble than large bureaucratic organizations.
Who has more money than governments? Sergey Brin is worth about $65 billion. The US federal budget is ~$3 trillion _per year_
Here is one example...
5. Niger: Wealth per Adult: $1,017 Niger is the largest nation in West Africa, but more than 80% of its land area is in the Sahara Desert, so it is prone to drought and famine. The GDP as of 2017 was $9.87 billion, but the wealth per adult remained low despite economic reforms.
Reference:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/managing-wealth/112916...
Re: Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief charity
#10> But the use of ex-military personnel for humanitarian and conservation work is also controversial, according to Rosaleen Duffy, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Sheffield.
No, Professor Duffy, the use of ex- or active - military personnel to render aid is not controversial. It's a widely accepted and successful practice.