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ucaetano

> You do realize that Zuck has pledged away 99% of his wealth?

He hasn't. He has pledged to donate 99% of his wealth to a private, for-profit organization that he owns.

I also pledge to donate 99% of my wealth to my bank account.

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>He hasn't. He has pledged to donate 99% of his wealth to a private, for-profit organization that he owns.

I initially thought you were being overly critical here. It looks like you're right, the "Initiative" he created is an LLC and not a non-profit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Zuckerberg_Initiative#Com...

Yep, and not his first rodeo either. Remember the "Internet.org", a for-profit initiative that is part of Facebook? Putting ".org" in something for-profit that tries to achieve monopoly is as dishonest as it gets...

If you read higher up in that wiki it lists all of the money the initiative has given away so far. I'm not sure why people think that the LLC doesn't give away money.

The issue isn't that the LLC doesn't give away money. The issue is that it is a LLC.

That's called influence, changing people's minds with relatively small amounts of money. And it works.

Changing people's minds is no longer considered influential?

Interesting tax avoidance strategy. Any idea if this is also what Bill Gates is doing?

His and his wife's is a proper foundation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...

The money is out of their hands, and can't be distributed back to them.

Even in that case, he and his family will for a long time have the political benefit of deciding how the money will be spent. And political advantages usually translate into economical advantages, so it can also be viewed as a scheme at some level.

Oh, sure, I'm not saying he is a saint or anything. But Gate's actions are very, very different than "I'm donating to a company I own and calling it an 'initiative'" Zuckerberg. That's a whole new level of dishonesty.

I don't think this cynicism is warranted. No matter how much benefit you think the goodwill of others is towards you for giving away your money, is dwarfed by the benefit of having billions of dollars.

If the political benefit really outweighed the costs, then every single billionaire would be doing the same thing, purely out of selfish interest. How many of them are?

> If the political benefit really outweighed the costs, then every single billionaire would be doing the same thing, purely out of selfish interest.

Well, they are doing for the selfish interest of feeling and looking good.

And I'm completely ok with that!

Lots of them are doing it. In fact, one of the oldest schemes devised by American billionaires is to start a foundation and to call themselves philanthropists. After all, how many billions you really need? It is better to take a portion of this money and invest in public relations.

Not exactly, I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is a nonprofit. However, there's a book called "No Such Thing as a Free Gift" about the social costs of letting our .00001% be the welfare providers for society. Pretty good if you're interested.

I'm also happy to give away every dollar I earn, once I have $440m in my bank account.

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