Warren Buffet Giving Away Almost $40 Billion! (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Mayer]

Then I will. Those drops are going to save lives. Maybe a few, maybe many. To those he saves, whether they know it or not, he's a saint. Considering how he made his money, I think Buffet probably researched where he's giving the money, how it will be used, and what it's projected to do. I doubt he didn't do his homework.

 

[Chu Gai]

Would there have been a greater benefit to those afflicted by hunger and disease if somehow the UN managed to get the governments of those countries to start behaving like governments? Instead, we have Darfur, the decimation of Zimbabwe and its economics by the likes of Mugabe, the tragedy of Rwanda, the health minister of South Africa touting mysticism and tribal cures for aids, the failure of the Mexican government with providing for its people despite massive oil revenues and a healthy tourist trade, the abhorence of using DDT to knock out the skeeters again, etc.

I contribute to charitable causes but there's a part of me that would like to see some countries that default on their loans repeatedly have their governments taken over for a period of time to restore accountability and sanity. Much like the taking over of school districts that repeatedly screw up educating children.

 

[MarkHastings]

ANYONE who gives money to a charity (now matter how big or insignificant) is considered a "saint" in my book

 

[AjayM]

Have you ever clicked a link to the Gates foundation? Maybe instead of just blindly blabbering about what they should do with the money you'd actually figure it out.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

There you go, spend 5 minutes skimming over the information and educate yourself on what they do and where they spend money. One of the items on the list is cleaning up drinking water in 3rd world countries.

 

[Joe Szott]

It's always the last drop that breaks the entire dam. Was every other drop added before that last one worthless?


I don't understand the arguement against charitable giving, never have. It f*&^ing saves lives, ok? If you don't like it, don't do it. But please don't criticise those that are willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others, it is extremely petty and unbecoming.

 

[Dick]

Now if only our government...

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The Packards did this too. They told their kids early on that, yes, their father was one of the richest men in America but that, no, they couldn't kick back and goof off. They told their kids to pick their career and that they would see that it happened.

Julie Packard told her folks that her goal in life was to direct a major research aquarium. So they dug into their pockets and funded the Monterrey Bay Aquarium so she could have a job.

I knew Julie somewhat in the early 1970's when we were both students at Crown College, US Santa Cruz. But I hardly knew her well...she was a year ahead of me and was studying biology while I was studying physics. I remember her as a very practical down-to-earth sort, hardly what you would expect from a millionaire heiress.

Most of the Packard fortune went to the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. But I'm sure you may agree that the funds they spent on the Monterrey Bay Aquarium didn't go to waste, and that it in itself was a benefit to society.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Would stop confiscating so much of our money so we could contribute more to the charities we support, rather than having it distributed by beauracrats who hand it out based on the vagaries of political pressure after pocketing a hefty chunk of it for their own salaries? Yes, that would be nice.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Christ Reynolds]

no need to state the obvious, joe, we all knew that was what dick was going to say.



CJ

 

[John Watson]

I think JR made a lot of good points.

And I won't expect much from a Foundation that operates like Windows, a bloated, resource-eating communication-destroying weapon of mass delusion.

 

[Lew Crippen]

That is like comparing the Rockefeller Foundation to Standard Oil or the Carnegie Libraries and Carnegie Mellon University to U.S. Steel.

If you want to believe that what Buffet has done is bad, at least make an analogy that has some substance.

 

[BrianW]

Again, Buffett can't just go to an ATM and withdraw $30 billion to give to charity. It just doesn't work that way.

Buffett had to give his stock to a foundation that already had tens of billions of dollars in assets in order to avoid a statute-mandated scheduled sell-off of the donated stock, which would severely diminish the value of the contribution. And with asset requirements that high, the Gates Foundation is the only game in town. By giving to the Gates Foundation, Buffett ensured that the donated stock won't form a significant enough percentage of the foundation's assets to trigger the statute, so the stock can be converted and sold on an extended schedule that will not cause the stock price to nosedive.

I'm not that fond of the Gates Foundation myself, but had Buffett given $30 billion to any other charity, the charity would have ended up with only pennies on the dollar after being forced by law to sell the stock on an accelerated schedule.

Is the Gates Foundation the best charity to support? Probably not, though that's certainly debatable. But it's good enough, and in Warren Buffett's case, it was absolutely the smartest choice he could have made to maximize the actual Bang/Buck ratio of his contribution.

 

[John Watson]

"Throwing good money after bad" help you understand?

 

[Ricardo C]

John, how about explaining why the Gates foundation is a bad choice, beyond comparing it to Windows?

 

[Lew Crippen]

No!

Even if Bill Gates’ money was bad (something I don’t concede), it does not follow that it remains bad in his foundation. Any more than Carnegie’s or Rockefeller’s.

 

[dany]

Maybe some of you should e-mail WB and ask him to please do not try to help others,you just dont like the way he's doing it. Sounds pretty fricken stupit doesnt it?

 

[AjayM]

And you're basing this on what? You're comparing a charitable organization to a computer operating system. Maybe next we can compare apples to airplanes, or maybe the US Space program to M2 phillip head screws.

 

[MarkHastings]

Macintosh apples?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Mark

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Blasphemy!!! Red Sox fans do not contribute to a 'Lou Gherig's disease fund'. They donate to Curt Schilling's 'K-ALS' fund. That's the one he advertised on his spikes, right under his bloody sock, when he won the game in the 2004 WS. That was after he won game six in the ALCS, when they came back from 0-3, against The YANKEES!!! (and Jeter batted .200)