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

[Joseph DeMartino]

Hey, I do tech support for a living. Those people pay my mortgage and finance my HT habit. What you hear as a stupid question, I hear as a cash register ringing up another sale. Ka-CHING!



Joe

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think this is incredibly generous. Still, I wish that he would have set aside, say 1B out of that amount for animal welfare. Whenever you read about these huges donations, none of it is for animal welfare. Thank what that kind of donation could do to eliminate or reduce all the suffering that animals must bear.

The argument that "not one dollar for the animals till all humans or ok" doesn't hold water with me. My donations are for animal wellfare. There's very little government support (if any) of animal wellfare, so I reserve my donations for them.

I remember asking once if there was any provision in United Way for animal welfare and there wasn't.

 

[MarkHastings]

but if $$ was put aside for animal welfare, then someone could say "Why not put money toward saving the rainforest? Without a rainforest, it doesn't matter how many people and animals you save..."

etc. etc. etc.

 

[Steve Felix]

This is my capitalist ideal. Use money to make money, and then give away what you've amassed towards the end.

 

[mattCR]

A fantastic jesture. And, as estate planning, the man who has campaigned to maintain inheritence tax found a great philanthropic way to basically avoid it all together

 

[Thomas Newton]

This is Warren Buffet we're talking about. I really doubt that he has a whole bunch of personal financial advisors. Or needs them.

 

[Chu Gai]

The animals wouldn't need welfare if they'd get off their asses and get a job.

 

[ThomasC]

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Can't imagine his kids are too thrilled about this. I'll bet it's going to be tense around the Buffet family dinner table come Thanksgiving.

"Would you like a drumstick son?"

"Gee, dad, don't you think you should give that to Bill F***ing Gates so he can feed the world?!"



Joe

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Hmmm... time to print out some official-looking "Poehlman Foundation" letterhead and type a note to Mr. Buffet.

I'll be sure to put in there that I really like his music.

 

[MarkHastings]

Won't someone PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!!!!!

 

[Brian Perry]

This is a good point. I think in the long run it will be better for the charities to receive the maximum investment proceeds generated by Mr. Buffet's acumen (in contrast to annual donations that would have reduced principal).

 

[Johnny Angell]

Yes, because I'm doing exactly that, saying "why don't you". Each person always has a priority and I'm stating one of mine and making the point that if private donors don't do it, it doesn't get done because governments don't. I'm just wishing one of these mega donations would be for my favorite cause.

Sure there are municipal shelters, but all to often, these are just euthanasia factories. Not sure if its still true, but in Little Rock, the shelter was under the trash department.

Also you've asked to think of the children. Well many charities already do and if I understand it correctly the Gates foundation is taking aim at diseases they want to eliminate. I'll bet that will benefit a lot of kids. Which means Buffet's donations will benfit the children.

Speaking of the opposite, does the Gates foundation target Alzheimer's?

 

[MarkHastings]

sorry, my last 2 posts were jokes.

 

[BrianW]

What?

 

[Joe Szott]

You have your pet projects, Warren Buffet has his. You're free to donate $37 billion of your accrued $55 billion dollars anyway you please.

Man, I can't believe it. The guy gives away $37,000,000,000 straight up and the first thing you do is comment that he didn't do it right? Something is out of whack there...

 

[Jed M]

This is all a bunch of crap. He should just smoke his money if he is not going to donate it to testicular elephantitis disease. What a mockery he is making of those poor souls inflicted with that disease. When was the last time the government or anybody you knew cut a check to help these poor inflicted individuals. This guy makes me sick... SHAME ON YOU, MR. BUFFET, SHAME ON YOU!!!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm appalled that Mr. Buffet did not donate his billions to the Malignant Narcissism Foundation. Now there's a disease that needs to be cured, and the tragedy is that those who suffer from it aren't even aware of their affliction. It is the rest of us who suffer. Won't you help?

Regards,

Joe

 

[BrianW]

I was wondering how someone with billions and billions of dollars goes about giving it away. Most billionaires don't just have the cash in a bank and can withdraw $40 billion at the ATM. The money is tied up in stock. In Buffett's case, more than half of his donated amount is tied up in just one company.

And you can't just sell $30 billion worth of stock in a single company to liquidate the cash for charity. The lack of buyers for this much stock dumped on the market would cause the stock price to tank, making the bulk of Buffett's investment worth little more than the paper the stock is printed on.

So what's a billionaire to do?

Until I read this article, I didn't know it was possible to make such a large donation without significantly diminishing the value of the donation as it changed hands. But Buffett found (or came up with) a way.

Yes, when it comes to money, the man is brilliant. And brilliance, combined with generosity, puts him in a different league among business people -- or even people in general.

 

[willyTass]

Dear Mr Buffet

Just enough for a G90 please

Many Thanks

Will