Buffett And Gates Encourage Billionaires To Donate At Least Half of Their Fortunes

[Ghost of Cutten]

Hey it's their money so they have the right to do what they want with it.

IMO the best use of 1 billion+ is to develop products and services that are needed, expensive to develop, and in short supply. If someone identifies such a product or service that cannot be developed profitably (e.g. medicine for very poor people; very long-term research projects; non-economic goals etc), then charity is a way to provide it. There are plenty of people who will do something for profit, far less who will do it at a loss for the greater good.

Being a billionaire means you have the luxury of not having to serve the interests of the market, whilst retaining the ability to engage in expensive projects requiring heavy financing. That's a niche that smart rich people like Buffett and Gates can fill. They may fail but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to try.

 

[pookie]

Quote from Misthos:

What Buffet and Gates realize, that many in their class don't, is that we have an economic system that is mostly supportive of the extremely wealthy.

Many don't understand this and attack their fellow Americans that are on the dole. What they don't realize, is that these Americans are merely getting by, whereas the real government supported wealth transfers and wealth protection goes to the billionaires.

When Wall Street was bailed out, the extremely wealthy disproportionately were bailed out. The wealthy, through incorporation, can declare Bankruptcy and socialize their losses (think Trump) and maintain extreme wealth status. The little people? When they do that they are truly wiped out.

In a true capitalist society, failure would be much more common. The concentration of wealth would be far less extreme that we see today.

So Gates and Buffet know this yet instead of creating some think-tank or political action committee that espouses true capitalism which would actually affect them negatively, they publicly support a theory of "Noblesse Oblige." That is, in order to maintain the deck stacked in theirr favor, the wealthy should voluntarily give up some of their wealth, least the system reaches its historical dead-end - i.e. a French or Bolshevik style uprising.

We are approaching the two-three year mark of this crisis. Millions of Americans are financially wiped out and unemployed. Yet the billionaires of the world have safely maintained or recaptured their pre-crisis wealth.

Gee, how did that happen?

Perfectly stated. Great post, Misthos!

 

[stefan_777]

Quote from maxpi:

virtually all problems are spiritual. That is why Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us. He knows that not all are spiritual successes.... I only give to the beggars if I can talk to them about rehab and Jesus, otherwise giving them money is likely not changing anything...

From Matthew...

1. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"

2. "And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

Never read anything about only giving to poor people you like....

 

[hofficita]

The problem is that they also use their wealth to force their self-serving worldview on others through government action.

Quote from Ghost of Cutten:

Hey it's their money so they have the right to do what they want with it.

IMO the best use of 1 billion+ is to develop products and services that are needed, expensive to develop, and in short supply. If someone identifies such a product or service that cannot be developed profitably (e.g. medicine for very poor people; very long-term research projects; non-economic goals etc), then charity is a way to provide it. There are plenty of people who will do something for profit, far less who will do it at a loss for the greater good.

Being a billionaire means you have the luxury of not having to serve the interests of the market, whilst retaining the ability to engage in expensive projects requiring heavy financing. That's a niche that smart rich people like Buffett and Gates can fill. They may fail but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to try.

 

[LeeD]

Quote from Misthos:

We are approaching the two-three year mark of this crisis. Millions of Americans are financially wiped out and unemployed. Yet the billionaires of the world have safely maintained or recaptured their pre-crisis wealth.

Quote from loza:

Look at the black guy who was NBA for 10-years, made 2+ million and now he lives in an old Buick.
...Gates and Buffett are very smart.

One may become wealthy due to extreme talent or luck but staying wealthy requires certain psycholocal profile. Forget for a moment that many children are taught they don't deserve success. Forget that it's common to think that wealthy people are greedy, ruthles or otherwise "bad" in some way (we see lots of hartred towards the wealthy even in this thread); how many people want to think of themselves as a "bad" person?

The problem is lots of people don't want the actual wealth. They think of wealth as buying that expensive car or holiday. What most people want is to spend while being wealthy is about preserving what you have in the first place. "A penny saved is a penny earned."

 

[shortie]

Quote from nutmeg:

For what?

We have subsidized housing, free education till 12th grade perhaps free college for some, food stamps, HEAP for heat assitance, some places have free day care (schools. jobs, state jobs), free health care (if you think not, who pays for the patch job when the boyz in the hood get shot)?

Bloomberg pays people to go to school, the dentist, the Dr, etc.

During Katrina the gov passed out $300 dollar atm cards. I mean what does charity want or need? Just more money?

I could understand private donations if the gov't was shy on the dole but pffttt. we have a generous gov't, trying to be all things to all people.

Link to Buffett article

http://www.luxist.com/2010/06/16/buffett-and-gates-encourage-billionaires-to-donate-at-least-half/

half-measures won't work. but the clean wealth reset may do the trick: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202171

 

[Gabfly1]

Quote from maxpi:

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us!!

Yes, but unlike the Right Wing, I don't think he viewed it as a goal.

 

[Anaconda]

Quote from blox87:

Google the gates foundation . Google how much buffet gave to the gates foundation. Your an idiot . Just because your rich doesn't mean you go to hell .... there are the greedy rich and the generous rich, big difference. Big difference between a rich coke dealer or rapper than someone like bill gates or buffet.

LOL, you really should research the Gates Foundation. It might as well be renamed the Genocide Foundation.

Silly sheeple.

 

[MarketMasher]

Read this book for some good laughs

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917

Its like when Joe The Plumber was worried he'd have his millions taxed away.

 

[LeeD]

Quote from hofficita:

The problem is that they also use their wealth to force their self-serving worldview on others through government action.

Not all of which is totally selfless. Bill Gates is a strong advocate of the "Climate Change" idea. At the same time he has been an investor in biofuels: he owns about 50% (or a few billion worth) of a large ethanol factory. A mandatory propotion of "biofuel" is added to petrol in the US... thanks to the efforts of "Climate Change" lobby.