Buffett Donates $1.6 Billion to Gates Foundation | Hacker News Reader

Buffett Donates $1.6 Billion to Gates Foundation

businessweek.com

13 pointsjacquesm19 comments

Gates actually donated more to his foundation -- he donated his time. I believe that if Gates stayed Microsoft's CEO -- Microsoft would be more successful company and delivered more to the society.

That's really a pretty outrageous claim. Microsoft has been pretty stuck since it was found to have violated anti-trust law. Just because he rode one company up to become the world's richest man, doesn't mean that he could have done something to make Microsoft a better company today.

I don't think that was the outrageous or controversial part of the OP's comment at all. Making Microsoft a better company than they are today would just require beating Ballmer, which is not exactly difficult.

I believe that if Gates stayed Microsoft's CEO -- Microsoft would be more successful company and delivered more to the society.

interesting opinion about microsoft possibly delivering more to society. would you care to speculate on what possible ways they could better benefit society if billg were still in charge? i can't think of how a new version of SQL Server or MS Excel could do more direct benefits than malaria vaccines, etc. but perhaps msft could put more money into basic research, using computational methods to solve the world's problems, etc.?

Well, if Microsoft delivered more value to shareholders (and to its employees), then those folks could choose to contribute that money to a variety of sources, philanthropic and otherwise. I'd personally think that the Foundation has done more good than a better MSFT would have, but suppose (1) billg delayed retiring by 10 years (2) we assume that billg's presence would have drastically improved MSFT's fortunates, then I think it's plausible that it would be a net benefit for society.

With looming death tax, is there an alternative for Gates http://www.nodeathtax.org/deathtax

He should build a moonbase with it.

Amazing.

What exactly do you find amazing in it?

The guy spent his entire life accumulating massive amounts of wealth, spent virtually none of it, and is now using it to make the world a better place. What don't you find amazing about that?

I agree in general. But it seems you put a lot of weight on donation part. Donating to charity is OK activity. Gates Foundation is probably one of the best charities, but donating is not nearly as important in comparison with Buffet's contribution to the society while he was making his billions. The billions Buffet made is a rough indicator of how much he contributed to the society. If he did not contribute -- he wouldn't make his fortune. Buffet also shared his investing advise, which is extremely valuable. So again, in comparison with what Buffet did already donations themselves do not look as amazing.

The greatest thing either of these men have done with their lives is commit to philanthropy. Everything else pales in comparison, and the biggest impact they will have on the world will have been through their philanthropy. They'll be remember for two things: being filthy rich, and what they did with those riches. Little will be remembered about either of the men personally, I dare say.

Tell me, downvoter, what Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have done that will be more memorable than perhaps in a few years having wiped out malaria? Windows Vista? The Zune? Buying Gillette and Geico?

Downvotes contribute nothing to a discussion, and without commentary they serve little purpose, save to inform the downvotee that you have something against what they said yet felt disinclined to share it..

The present world have more software freedom if Bill Gates wasn't the one who helped put a computer in most homes in the developed world, but he was still an instrumental individual in the computing revolution. Like Andrew Carnegie, he will leave a legacy with a complicated narrative.

> The billions Buffet made is a rough indicator of how much he contributed to the society.

I believe this is the root of your mistake, since those two are not measuring quite the same thing...

I think he's a somewhat odd case, in that accumulating wealth, rather than the wealth itself, is what he finds interesting. He doesn't seem to have any particular desire to build huge mansions or leave a multi-generation legacy or anything, but really likes running Berkshire Hathaway. He did it well enough that he now has a huge pile of money that he doesn't really need or even particularly want, so now wants to find something useful to spend it on.

In 2006, Buffet gave away 30 billion dollars worth of stock to the gates foundation

The Gates Foundation seems to have a lot of high-profile donators sticking a lot of tax-free money in there.

Not to be cynical or anything - but there is as much malaria in the 3rd world as there was before this foundation started.

Um, no.

http://www.globalhealthreporting.org/article.asp?DR_ID=54529

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