40 billionaires pledge to give away half of wealth

[Temujin]

And now for something completely different!

40 billionaires pledge to give away half of wealth
Gates, Buffett lead campaign to persuade America's wealthiest to donate their fortunes

More than three dozen of America's wealthiest individuals and families have joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in agreeing to give away at least half their fortunes to charity.

The announcement was made Wednesday by The Giving Pledge, an effort officially launched by Gates and Buffett earlier this year to persuade the richest people in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice, either during their lifetime or after their death.

In addition to Buffett and Gates — America's two wealthiest individuals, with a combined net worth of $90 million, according to Forbes — 38 other billionaires are taking the give-it-away pledge. They include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, film director George Lucas and investor Ronald Perelman.

"We’ve really just started, but already we’ve had a terrific response,” Buffett, co-founder and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a statement. “At its core, the Giving Pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used.

"We’re delighted that so many people are doing just that – and that so many have decided to not only take this pledge but also to commit to sums far greater than the 50 percent minimum level.”

Bloomberg added: "If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing — by far — is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children. And by giving, we inspire others to give of themselves, whether their money or their time.”

Gates and Buffett launched "The Giving Pledge" in June. The effort could funnel a colossal amount of money into nonprofit groups. If the individuals on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans pledged half their net worth to charity, that would amount to $600 billion, according to Fortune magazine.

The United States has roughly 400 billionaires, about 40 percent of the world's total, according to Forbes.

The pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract. It does not involve pooling money or supporting a particular set of causes or organizations.

Well, its a nice gesture if they go through with it, though most of the ones mentioned don't seem like they are part of the wrecking crew that have been fucking this country over. Those rat bastards are the ones that need to pay up.

[Solauren]

Very nice.

Mind you, I'd be more impressed if they were also putting it into creating jobs and lowering product costs, but it's a great start.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Friend of mine is in a lab funded by Gates. Funny story. They were collecting sponges in antarctica and Bill Gates was on vacation with his kid and decided, at random, to stop by the facility. He had no idea (until they told him) that the people there at the time were funded by him. They showed him around, he was interested etc. Just a regular decent guy who happens to be Gigarich. This does not shock me at all. He knows damn well he has more money than he knows what to do with. Literally. What else is he going to do with it? Give it to charity and fund research labs.

[Thanas]

Friend of mine is in a lab funded by Gates. Funny story. They were collecting sponges in antarctica and Bill Gates was on vacation with his kid and decided, at random, to stop by the facility. He had no idea (until they told him) that the people there at the time were funded by him. They showed him around, he was interested etc. Just a regular decent guy who happens to be Gigarich.

His children also appear to be well brought-up.

[eion]

Sounds like a good idea. Probably also helps that they'll get to deduct it on their taxes.

[Alphawolf55]

Which just means they'll have more to give since the pledge is to give 50% or more of all their money.

[Lagmonster]

Not to be acidic in the context of all their outpourings of love (assuming it even happens), but what would you DO with that kind of money suddenly cast into the pot? It seems that it would cost a reasonable sum just to set up an organization of people just to give it away.

[Alphawolf55]

They'll either just give the money to pre-existing organizations, or like you said set up that money to start new organizations and hopefully hire people from the same pool of people that the donated money would be helping in the first place.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Why do I feel it's kind of a shame George Lucas is in there? Sure, he's got the cash, but... it could also be invested in more Star Wars films and related media. Times like this, there's a good argument to be made that morale-uplifting stuff can be a lot more useful than it's cost in money invested in 'hard' services.


Of course, that's assuming he could somehow manage to make another one without haters finding something to hate on. So yeah, maybe it's just a good idea to give it away so nobody asks him to make more films.

Even if these gigarich folks give away 50% of their wealth, though, how much are we talking about? Is it going to be significant on a scale of national expenditures?

[eion]

Something tells me if George Lucas wanted to make another movie he'd have no problem securing funding from any of the major studios. Hell, he could just ask for donations online and millions of Star Wars fans giving $25 dollars each would take care of it.

[Ace Pace]

Not to be acidic in the context of all their outpourings of love (assuming it even happens), but what would you DO with that kind of money suddenly cast into the pot? It seems that it would cost a reasonable sum just to set up an organization of people just to give it away.

See the Gates foundation, which is an entire organization dedicated to finding ways to effectively distribute the funds involved, and also invests the funds to make sure the money survives over time.

In other words, you don't take 40 billion dollars and give them, you hand them out at a specific rate and safeguard the rest, investing some of it in order to make sure you can still gift money for decades.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Friend of mine is in a lab funded by Gates. Funny story. They were collecting sponges in antarctica and Bill Gates was on vacation with his kid and decided, at random, to stop by the facility. He had no idea (until they told him) that the people there at the time were funded by him. They showed him around, he was interested etc. Just a regular decent guy who happens to be Gigarich.

His children also appear to be well brought-up.

Maybe there is something about building an evil empire with your bare hands that moderates some of the nastier impulses of the rich. He did not inherit the money, he was not lucky. It was merit (issues with Microsoft aside). Perhaps this modifies the relevant part of the equation that makes certain wealthy individuals megadouches?

[eion]

Even if these gigarich folks give away 50% of their wealth, though, how much are we talking about? Is it going to be significant on a scale of national expenditures

According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest people in America have $1.27 Trillion combined. 50% of that would be $635 Billion Dollars. I can think of a lot of things to do with $600 Billion Dollars. For starters you could send 4 million people to the finest universities in the world, bring the cost of electric car batteries down to a pittance of what they are today and build charging stations all over the country, or buy the vote of every member of congress and the president, and all the people running against them, 5 times over.

[Simon_Jester]

Now that would be awesome: if the forty richest people in America contributed their wealth to a "counterbribe politicians to stop letting kleptocrats run the place by default" fund.

Probably wouldn't work, but still...

[eion]

Reminds me of the old joke about the judge with two bribes...

[Alyrium Denryle]

Now that would be awesome: if the forty richest people in America contributed their wealth to a "counterbribe politicians to stop letting kleptocrats run the place by default" fund.

Probably wouldn't work, but still...

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

[Steel]

Great news, it is fantastic to see so many people choosing to use their wealth to help others.

In addition to Buffett and Gates — America's two wealthiest individuals, with a combined net worth of $90 million

Spectacularly bad reporting though.

[eion]

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

Just for reference, in order to equal the buying power of the 400 strong gigarich fund 300 million people would have to give $2,000 each. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more people involved in politics on that scale, but a lot of those 300 million don't have 200 dollars to spare, let alone 2,000.

As it happens, my favorite way to spend $600 billion would be to fund a program twice the size of NASA for 17 years.

[Steel]

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

Just for reference, in order to equal the buying power of the 400 strong gigarich fund 300 million people would have to give $2,000 each. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more people involved in politics on that scale, but a lot of those 300 million don't have 200 dollars to spare, let alone 2,000.

As it happens, my favorite way to spend $600 billion would be to fund a program twice the size of NASA for 17 years.

Why stop at 17 years? If you get 5% interest each year on your $600billion thats 30billion, sufficient to fund your NASA*2 forever.

[Simon_Jester]

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

Just for reference, in order to equal the buying power of the 400 strong gigarich fund 300 million people would have to give $2,000 each. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more people involved in politics on that scale, but a lot of those 300 million don't have 200 dollars to spare, let alone 2,000...

That's the problem with pauperization of the middle and lower classes. In the opening phase, they don't realize they need to throw money at politics in self defense, and by the time the process has continued to its logical conclusion, they couldn't do it if they wanted to.

[ray245]

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

Just for reference, in order to equal the buying power of the 400 strong gigarich fund 300 million people would have to give $2,000 each. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more people involved in politics on that scale, but a lot of those 300 million don't have 200 dollars to spare, let alone 2,000...

That's the problem with pauperization of the middle and lower classes. In the opening phase, they don't realize they need to throw money at politics in self defense, and by the time the process has continued to its logical conclusion, they couldn't do it if they wanted to.

I thought they already did by throwing their money towards their political parties and the presidential candidates?

[ShadowDragon8685]

We could sooo start a grassroots movement to do this on our own.

Just for reference, in order to equal the buying power of the 400 strong gigarich fund 300 million people would have to give $2,000 each. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more people involved in politics on that scale, but a lot of those 300 million don't have 200 dollars to spare, let alone 2,000...

That's the problem with pauperization of the middle and lower classes. In the opening phase, they don't realize they need to throw money at politics in self defense, and by the time the process has continued to its logical conclusion, they couldn't do it if they wanted to.

Of course, the problem with that is that by the time the program has continued to the logical conclusion, it's just a matter of time before the pauperized people whose interests are no longer represented realize that it's a hell of a lot cheaper to start throwing bullets at politics in self-defense than it is to try and throw buckeroos.

[Kanastrous]

^Has that arc actually been seen from beginning to end, any place, or is that more of a hypothesis?

[ShadowDragon8685]

^Has that arc actually been seen from beginning to end, any place, or is that more of a hypothesis?

1775-1783. Sure, that exact arc hasn't been seen, but there's been a lot of revolutions in the world precipitated by the underclasses getting angry.

[eion]

Um, I don't see a whole lot of poor people in this painting

if the underclass in colonial America were wearing silk waistcoats and pristine knee-britches what were the upper classes wearing? Solid gold suits of armor?

The War of Independence was fought by a lot of poor guys, but it was started by a lot of rich guys.