Billionaires to give away half their fortune

Originally posted by Stillalive
not even one nice comment,what happend to you people?
bill gates and other people want to give half theyr fortune to charity and you bash them,what will make you happy? to be the next hitler perhaps?
meanwhile you like buyng ipods and iphones feeding that 7 head snake steve jobs,yea worship him,i dont see him doing anything charitable. you should feel shame!

Money is in the end just money, plain and simple.

It's easy to seem to be making a grand gesture by giving half of your fortune to the unfortunate, but who is more worthy of praise, the person who is can barely afford to eat but gives half of his possessions to the needy, or the guy who gives half of his fortune to the needy but will still continue to live the life that most will never dream of?

It's easy to "throw money" at the problem. Until they've spent more of their lives doing the physical dirty work and sweating to help people, without having the comfort of their multi-million dollar homes and yachts to return to, why should they be given any praise?

Perhaps they are giving away a portion of their wealth to avoid a political "Share the Wealth Tax" the government has in the workings to unleash on rich folks or something, I know this is pure speculation but would it be unreasonable to think about the motive, I wonder what the return write off is for donating in the hundreds of millions, and possibly billions? Anyway maybe this is some kind of strategic pre emptive thing they are doing to protect themselves.... who knows certainly not me.

Originally posted by citizen smith
Better their money goes directly to charities and bypasses the taxation system, that way 100% of the funds will be made available, rather than the state taking a whacking great slice and then handing whats left of the rest on

Unfortunately, no charity seems to allow 100% of donations to go towards helping who/what they're raising money for. There's overhead, salaries, fundraising costs. According to this article, the average that gets scooped out off the top is 16%. Some better, some worse. None perfect...

www.forbes.com...

reply to post by 547000

See, no matter what they do you people will condemn them. It's a lose-lose situation whether they give money or not, simply for being rich.

Since you have consistently knocked the naysayers, perhaps you can enlighten us as to your greater wisdom.
Lets have it.
What is your perspective on this story?
I am all ears. .......

Originally posted by wayno
reply to post by 547000

 

See, no matter what they do you people will condemn them. It's a lose-lose situation whether they give money or not, simply for being rich.

Since you have consistently knocked the naysayers, perhaps you can enlighten us as to your greater wisdom.
Lets have it.
What is your perspective on this story?
I am all ears. .......

Proof that no matter what the majority of people in ATS will condemn rich people:

Case 1: They don't give money. Then ATS members will call them selfish.

Case 2: They give money anonymously. Then ATS members will not know they did and call them selfish.

Case 3: They give half their wealth away. Then ATS members will say they didn't give enough.

Case 4: They give most of their wealth away. Then ATS members will call it suspicious and conspiracy.

Q.E.D.

Note that in cases 2-4 someone other than the rich person benefits from the rich person's action.

reply to post by 547000


Thanks for reiterating your opinion of ATSers, but that is not what I was asking. I already knew that from all of your previous posts.

I was hoping you would give us your interpretation of the action of the Billionaires. You say we are wrong about them.

So, please give us your (presumably positive) interpretation of their actions so that we may see the light also.