Hacker News Reader

Comment by arcturus17 | Hacker News Reader

So after reading this your first instinct was to comment how you know better than the world’s greatest philanthropist?

Is he greater than, say, the guy who founded DFS Group, who has now given away all his wealth in line with his plan to do so which he set in place decades ago?

Edit named wrong company initially

Ummm, yeah? Bill Gates has also famously committed to giving away substantial parts of his wealth to charity, and has even gotten other billionaires to do the same.

Although, let's not actually compare greatness here, anyone voluntarily giving away their vast fortunes to charity deserves applause in my mind, and saying that one is greater than the other is kind of pointless.

Well I was responding to someone who implied that Bill Gates was the greatest. Chuck Feeney lives in a rented apartment drives a modest car and has essentially given away his entire $8 billion dollar wealth. It's hard to top that for generosity in my opinion.

But he gave it mostly to his own charity, as far as I know, so he still has some control over it. So it is not the same, I think.

Like, you are right, but I would phrase it differently - he not only donated most of his money to charity, but he also committed a big part of his time to making the world a better place via his charities. His time/attention on what should be done, coupled with his work in getting other billionaires on board, is quite a bit more valuable than just the money alone.

DFS as in the duty-free retailer? Given that they made their money from cheap booze & cigarettes, you'd figure they're starting from a pretty big karma deficit -- Windows may be responsible for a lot of things, but not lung cancer or cirrhosis of the liver.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com