Slashdot Mirror
Billions Donated to Charity
Anonymous Philanthropist writes " Warren Buffet , the world's second-richest man, announced over the weekend that he will soon donate 85% of his entire net worth, weighing in at around $37 Billion, to charities, with over 80% of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This makes it the single largest monetary donation in history."
The X-Prize had an Iranian family of much lesser means providing the critical financing to put it over the top.
I mean it was fine for Paul Allen to invest in Rutan but really -- how is it these people manage to leave the role of king offering the hand of his daughter in marriage to the knight that slays the dragon to Iranians?
Seastead this.
I hate to say this but in many cases it's true. Very evil people quite often do a lot of good things at the same time.
Hitler spends millions taking kids on holidays they could never dream of getting any other way. Sure a lot of it was to train them up as soldiers and fighters, but some of it was also "real" fun and games. That's how he got where he was, he used the carrot while hiding his stick.
I'm not saying Gates is a Nazi, but he's using the same tactic. Instead of showing his evil MS empire he's showing his charitable side and how "MS technology makes everything easy". So while he may screw a lot of us over in the long run (or make a virus industry tick), he also does some good things through his evilness.
So while you may question how much of a charity it really is, don't forget it may just be doing what it says on the box.
I like muppets.
Another reason why Islam > Christianity. I don't believe in either, but Islam is superior to Christianity in many ways, including their view on riches in society. What would you rather this guy do, give all his money to Bill and go beg for soup at the foundation doors?
That's a stand-up man, right there. It's a sign he believes everyone should earn their own fortune, no free rides - even for his own children.
It's also a sign that he doesn't believe in the "great american dream"- that you can come to the US, struggle for a living most of your life- all for the sake of your children, who with any luck will be able to afford to attend school and then college, and rise above the peasant (er, I mean, "lower") class and do something better than clean toilets for the rest of their lives. Your life savings goes into a college fund for their kids, your house goes to them so they don't have to pay twice the rent on a 2BR house, for a 1BR postage stamp apartment.
Rich people can afford clever accountants to find the means to tuck away hundreds of thousands or millions for trust funds so that their kids never have to worry about whether their card will be declined at the grocery store. Meanwhile, Joe Q Public Sr the janitor dies and leaves his house and retirement savings to Joe Q Public Jr, and the government comes whistling with a wheel barrow looking for a heap of cash Junior doesn't have before the gravestone is in place. Oh, and Sr's life savings? They'll help themselves to that too.
I'm all for limiting how much money is passed on directly from one generation to the next to avoid the Paris Hiltons of the world, but for the Joes and Bobs, there should be a floor $ amount below which the government (oops, I mean "society") doesn't see a dime.
Please help metamoderate.
and everything would be free, right utopia boy? you watch too much Star Trek.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Just look at Rockefeller and Carnegie. They made significant contributions to the United States.
Buffett & Gates are, by any measure, lesser men. They are contributing to increased Third World populations and to supporting the diversion of scarce university resources toward educating unqualified individuals.(e.g., the United Negro College Fund)
This post should be deleted as the poster had no right to post this article to slashdot.
I gotta say it... when I read this, I thought that this story would definitely be the one to highlight the average youth and inexperience of the slashdot membership. And from reading through some of the comments, this has certainly been confirmed.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
This is a country where one designates a hand specially for wiping the shit from one's arsehole.
Where workmen wear their raggidiest clothes because tourists are more likely to hand them a year's wages through their tour bus window.
Where people who can't afford a crash helment make replicas out of paper so they can ride motorbikes without being stopped by the police for not wearing a crash helmet.
Where corruption is totally rife, cops "arrest" white people and threaten them with planted drugs to extort money.
etc. etc.
Laptops for every Indian Child is a riduclous premise.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
There is far more than AIDS in this world. I hope they spread it around... I suffer from Psoriasis, i never hear anyone giving a dam about it.
All i hear is "aids" "cancer" or "Diabetes"
Aids is like a buzz word for charity. Bono and Gates, their morons. There's more than AIDS in this world and yet its all they talk about. Thanks for nothing rich charitable self important morons.
And don't get raped. And don't get a bad transfusion from a third-world hospital.
Tell me, Mr. Dobson, just what exactly goes on in that little head of yours.
It would have been more fitting to mod you +5, Troll. Trolls like to eat babies too, don't they?
Actually, as a parent I'm sickened that you got any positive moderation at all. Then again this is socialist save-the-whales-kill-the-babies slashdot so I shouldn't be too surprised I suppose.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife