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Comment by ok_dad | Hacker News Reader

I guess he was just buying time and goodwill from the masses with his announcements. What a disappointment. I guess the wealthy really did win the class war.

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Quite possibly he did mean it at the time. However, since the announcement that it would be going to the Gates Foundation, uh, Bill Gates' reputation has had a rough time. Also, it was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the time, and they (and their money and charitable endeavors) have since split, so if it was Melinda Gates' instincts and skills on charitable giving that he was counting on when he made the initial announcement, that might be a reason for pulling back.

Pulling back from that foundation, sure, but starting his own org from scratch with no experience, and puts his 3 weird kids in charge? That's ludicrous.

It is not optimal, but the article implies that some of his kids do have some experience at charitable organization. Nothing remotely on the level of his wealth, but then few (if any) do.

He might just be making a mistake, but it is also possible that the longer he looked at charitable organizations generally, the less impressed he was. Also, he may not have much time, and having something in place now is better than having nothing.

Sounds like a bunch of excuses you’re making up for him. He’s a billionaire, he’s intelligent, and if he didn’t properly plan for his charitable giving at death it’s on purpose. He could have hired a hundred people to scour the planet for the best charities and give his money away to ten thousand different ones of he wanted to, even today, but like every human who gained a fortune he defaulted to nepotism. It’s just the way the world is, I doubt humans will ever overcome our base instinct to gather resources and hoard them, so I can’t say he’s evil or anything, I just personally think he’s a dickhead for saying he’d donate his money to charity and then doing the same shit every other wealthy person does.

The ultra wealthy have (correctly) read the room in the U.S. and realized the the oligarchy has won and fully completed it's metamorphosis; there is no longer any reason to play pretend about it.

The window closes for all if us, the last trillionair gets a potato for his kingdom .

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