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Comment by ceilingcorner | Hacker News Reader

Reframe “donations” as “PR expenses” and his continual wealth increase will make sense.

Yeah, but no. The problem is that the man invested in Microsoft, which has been proving itself to be a hell of an investment.

Sorry but spending / donating money is not a difficult thing to do. If you have billions of dollars, claim to be donating much of it, but somehow your wealth continues to increase, perhaps you’re not trying hard enough?

There's no "claim" - those donations and the records of the foundations are a matter of public record.

Also, completely liquidating and giving away his assets would result in a large payout once.. and then nothing ever again. You need money to make money, so holding onto some to appreciate in value (investments, interest, etc) results in more money being donated over a longer amount of time.

Giving away a million is easy, giving away a billion - or several - not so much. At least if you want the money to have an impact.

That doesn't make sense at all! What is this PR for? Are people buying more Windows Licenses because he is paying to charity? Are people sending money to him? Is he making billions of dollars getting commission for books he recommend? What do you mean?

The PR is to counteract the realization that a handful of ultra wealthy individuals own more than the other 90% of humanity combined.

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