United States Billioner's

[astroron]

I would like just .01% please:D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10870361

[renormalised]

When Buffet gave that money away back in 2006, he gave away $36 billion dollars, kept $9 billion. Said why would you need more than that at his age (at the time about 80). In the last 4 years, he's made more money back than what he gave away, so now he's richer than what he was then:):P

Once you've got that much money, making even more is all too easy. You don't even have to do anything to make the money!!!.

[multiweb]

Correct. Those guys are so insanely loaded it doesn't even make the slightest difference and they all boast about how generous and thoughtful they are. I have more respect for the bloke making $5 bucks an hour and giving a $100.00 donation than any of those clowns. :P It's all relative.

[astroron]

One thing you have forgotten is, they could have left the money in the Bank and let it make more money:).
What they are doing is putting Billions of dollars towards the eradication of disease's which Governments for various reasons cannot or will not put money too
Bill gates and Warren Buffet have pledged to try and have Malaria eradicated by putting billions into countries with poor water and Sanitary quality.
Is that so wrong:shrug:

[DavidU]

I agree with Marc however 10's of billions of $ is going to make some big differences in the 3rd world disease control water and sustainable farming etc.
True, a few billion less each will not change their world, but it sure will help the more unfortunate in the world.

[astroron]

Please read the article, some of these people are giving 50-90%of their wealth, which is not just a few billion,but a few tens of billions which is a big difference:shrug:
That these people choose to give anything at all should be applauded, not treated with scorn:(
Just because someone has money does not mean that they are bad or undeserving people:rolleyes:

[DavidU]

I read the article and agree with you Ron.No scorn implied from me.

[astroron]

Understood David:thumbsup:

[PCH]

Well said Ron :thumbsup: Why anyone would knock someone who's giving away that sort of $$$ to a great cause is totally beyond me :shrug:

[multiweb]

Nup - People on the ground who do make a difference with their hard work like in Africa. Yeah, anyday. Fat cats who spare some breadcrumbs? :lol: C'mon, who are you kidding? 38 out of 403? :rolleyes: What about increasing the wages of women and kids working in their factories overseas for a couple of bucks a month? That would improve their living standards no? oh... wait, no :doh: no good for their profit margins. :question:

[astroron]

How do you know that they don't:question:
The people on the ground may save hundreds to thousands of lives, but if with the donations of these Billioner's they find a cure for AIDS or Malaria, they could save thousands to millions of lives:thumbsup:
It is all to simplistic to condemn people with money with unsubstantiated claims:rolleyes:

[bartman]

+1 Ron
If the Billionaires didn't contribute ( however much $1 or $100 billion) those people would be worse off. Sure there are corrupt governments etc etc but some of that money does get there. Even when I contribute my X amount at Telethon and Appealathon, I know not all of my donation will make it to the intended charity ( people on the ground, water pumps, food, etc).
So if someone contributes 38b out of their 403b...tis better than nutink.

[wavelandscott]

For philanthropy or atonement I will only offer praise for these folks and their giving. After all, they aren't required to do so. It is true that they won't miss the money but that is besides the point. There is a long tradition of this type of thing in the US dating back to Carnegie who built free lending libraries all across the USA. As a child I took refuge in my small home town's library and attribute it to one of the factors that has helped me get where I am today.

In my job, part of my responsibility is to help support my company's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) http://www.olyset.net/
activites and as such work with many institutions funded by the Gates Foundation and others. I can tell you with great confidence that a lot of work helping folks at the BOP (Bottom of the Pryamid) simply would not get done if not for the funding provided by these "fat cats".

They are changing lives through their actions...

[mbo]

This is a very contentious and complicated issue, but you also have to consider why they _wouldn't_ give something back, they do not even vaguely have any real use for what they have. 10 percent of 50 Billion leaves you to struggle away on Five Thousand Million Dollars, so giving away Forty Five Thousand Million dolllars hurts you not one zot. These sort of numbers are almost incomprehensible to us humans, analogous to the distances in space. My purchase of a Care Bear for $10.00 is equivalently generouse to Bill donating $2,200,000 (based on his net worth being about 55 billion and mine being about 250,000). Yes, I'd rather they spent it on something to help humanity as a whole, but what can possibly justify the ludicrous margin of they're earnings over someone who actually works for them.

[astroron]

As I said if they didn't care they could leave it in the bank and do nothing:shrug:
as for wether they are worth that amount of money is a mute question.
As far as I am aware that is up to the market:rolleyes:
Unless you are the type who will say to his or her company dont pay me more than the general worker, you will except what the company is willing to pay:thumbsup:

[astroron]

My point exactly Scott:thumbsup:

[Jen]

:eyepop: i wish they would send me some :)

[mbo]

Again, I realise it's not a simple black and white question, money = motivation, without motivation we all just languish and do as little as possible, BUT, there seems to be a trend to draw greater amounts of national wealth (GDP?) into fewer hands. Modern economic systems are biased toward greed, not quality. Why rely on a generous man that can casually give away 95% of his income, when a better system might still provide him with ample personal motivation, and still direct the funds his empire produced into products for the greater good (Whatever that really means).
It's just another way of asking why the boss is worth millions (not thousands) of times more than the worker.?

[multiweb]

They must have already because to accumulate that much money someone must have been working very hard for them. Not one single individual is worth that much. They can't even spend the money they have. Not enought time. Numbers are so big I can't get my head around it. It's insane. How did the $ get there in the first place? And we all have to applaude Mr nice guys? :lol: ...Not!


My point. Paying better wages to people in poor countries for what they actually work for. Then they live better, get some self-esteem back, get educated, free, etc..etc.. it's a snowball effect. Everybody's better off. Of course profit margins will suffer. :P



Now that sounds like the real world we live in :) Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with them splashing money away. I have a problem with them blowing their horn doing so. Money is not an issue for them anymore. Would be like me leaving a half eaten burger on the side of the table for some hungry bugger and say how good I am trying to feel good about it? There are a lot of other people helping by doing hard work who actually give something that is valuable to them. Their time. I never liked the center stage clowns who like to be in the light because they can afford to.

[TrevorW]

I if fact must applaud one billionaire that has some vision, Richard B. sees profit in space and is aiming for it, one small step could be I giant leap for mankind not dependent upon the whim of a government but the strive for the almighty $$$, what if all these other billionaires shared his vision and they all contributed.

Giving money away is a good thing as long as it's use results in acheivable outcomes

[Louwai]

Just 1 scenario is;

I guess it's because the boss (owner / inventor / designer) is the one who initially spent a lot of their early yrs putting everything they had into an idea.
They spent every cent of their income from a part time job developing their dream. They had many failures along the way, but 1 of the ideas paid off. They spent every penny they had advancing their idea until the idea had been developed to a point where it could pay for itself.

So why don't they deserve to reap the benefit of their yrs of hard work & foresight?
Why should others automatically expect to share in someone's hard earned wealth??

Everyone has ideas, but only some have the balls to put everything on the line to persue their ideas. Those people are generally wealthy.


This, of course, is aimed at companies created & owned by a single individual.

Companies that take advantage of 3rd world manufacturing are a totally different kettle of fish.

[Rob_K]

Anything that returns money to disadvantaged Third World peoples is good per se, but we must remember that the system which enabled these people to become insanely, obscenely rich is the very one which created disadvantage and poverty. It cannot exist without it. I applaud the 'generous' philanthropy, but I won't be impressed until Buffet, Gates and the rest live in modest suburban houses, on a fair wage, and drive nice family sedans... :lol:

Cheers -

[astroron]

How many of the critics here give even .00001% of their wealth to charity:question:
If you do Good on you:thumbsup:
If they where in the same boat wealth wise as these people would they be any different:question::question::quest ion:

[Rob_K]

Well I do Ron, considerably more. And I have no wealth, although I am 'obscenely' rich compared to most people in the world. I'm part of the system that created rich people, and while low in the sceme of things I'm still in the upper echelon of beneficiaries, just because I'm lucky enough to live in the Western world. All I'm saying is remember where the wealth came from. :shrug: :)

Cheers -

[TrevorW]

Net taxable income is earnings-deductible expenses(which includes charities)

[astroron]

As far as I am concerned they are doing something useful with their money:) As I said they could leave it in the bank and let make lots of interest, that they choose to donate it to a worthwhile cause is a good thing in my book:)
End of Story:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

I give thousands every year both in cash, time and work for free . I have no idea what I would do if I was super loaded. Probably still work but have more astro cool toys. :)

[astroron]

As I said , if you do
Good on Ya.

[Astrobserver99]

All I can say is...its about time...helping the impoverished when you have that much money should be just plain common sense...though it seems to me that just to accumulate that amount of wealth in the first place seems to require a certain type of "money" mentality...I agree that those amounts are almost incomprehensible in human terms. Also, our capitolist society that encourages such accumulation is less than perfect...

[RobF]

Umm, not trying to be smart Ron, but 0.00001% of $1,000,000 is 10cents.....
(I'm not a millionaire BTW :))

[astroron]

What I am saying is that most people give nothing:rolleyes:
We where talking about BILLIONERS not Millioners:P

[richardda1st]

There are some who will automatically put down & criticize, and others who will automatically admire and praise, it’s so easy to do. :screwy:

These US billionaires may have worked hard in the past to earn their wealth, and may have even done so without taking advantage of others, just maybe, it is possible.:shrug:

I prefer not to judge as I can’t be bothered doing the research on these individuals to ascertain their bonafides.:P

They accumulated this wealth, which is a fact, regardless. They are putting this same wealth to some good now, which is also a fact.:eyepop:

Cheers
Richard

[mbo]

Yes, great effort deserves great reward, I just think it has to be a somewhat ratonal reward. Bill left University in 1975 to start Microsoft, he basically retired in 2006, lets call that 30 years of full slog working, 14 hours a day everyday. What should this pay you per hour? Doctors are very smart, hard working, and take on a very weighty responsibility, say they earn $250 per hour. A huge remuneration might be $1000 per hour. Do the sums on Bill and you get about $313,000 per hour for 35 years. He didn't work / suffer that much? Something doesn't make sense with the system. At least Bill Gates did something tangible, others like Warren Buffet just get rich by moving money about, essentially siphoning it off to themselves.
Anyway, it's always a contentious topic, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I'm going to back out of here :)

[DavidU]

Buffet lives very modestly with an old car.(he is the exception in the billionaires world).