8 ms·

You're assuming giving away money philanthropically is easy! It's not. If you do it wrong you end up giving all your money to grifters and outright fraud. Look

You're assuming giving away money philanthropically is easy! It's not. If you do it wrong you end up giving all your money to grifters and outright fraud. Look at the disaster the lockdown "loans" turned into in most countries. Billions and billions trousered by fraudsters. I'm not a fan of the GF actually but the primary constraint on how quickly Gates can give away money isn't his personality but rather the availability of non-fraudulent people who can actually do something useful and good with the funds. If the rate at which worthwhile beneficiaries can be identified is less than the ROI of the parked money, you get a foundation with growing funds instead of shrinking funds as you'd expect. And frankly the reason I'm not a Gates Foundation fan is exactly that it funds all sorts of low quality nonsense research, and has distorted the disease fighting community in all kinds of ways. Not saying I'd be able to do it better mind you. Just that any time you have vast sums of money and give it away you always end up distorting things and maybe creating new problems via broken incentives.

jonathankoren 4y ago
Two words: Helicopter money. Seriously. The problems you describe come from trying to pick winners. You cant. Just rent helicopter, and let the market decide.
- jseban 4y ago
  Haha the people who think that bill gates and jeff bezos is actually sitting on that money in cash, LOL Think also a bit about who is benefitting and making money from instigating this type of jealousy, being exploited as an unpaid click puppet is even worse than being a warehouse worker.
  - jonathankoren 4y ago
    > Think also a bit about who is benefitting and making money from instigating this type of jealousy I'll bite. Who? Who has the money, power, and motivation to secretly manipulate the pliable masses to turn against the billionaires, for their own nefarious ends?
    - jseban 4y ago
      > I'll bite. Who? Who has the money, power, and motivation to secretly manipulate the pliable masses to turn against the billionaires, for their own nefarious ends? Everyone who is not a billionaire, but still currently holds a privileged position compared to the pliable masses, will benefit from such propaganda of over simplified "injustice", because if will deflect attention away from their own privilege and keep them safe. You will see this most clearly if you look at ivory tower academics or cultural elite, who love to hate rich capitalists for being greedy, to get the "people" on their side to avoid having their own privilege under scrutiny, which in reality is often just as greedy and selfish.
      - jonathankoren 4y ago
        Who told you this? Petey "Women should never have gotten the vote" Thiel? https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

jonathankoren 4y ago

Two words: Helicopter money. Seriously. The problems you describe come from trying to pick winners. You cant. Just rent helicopter, and let the market decide.

jseban 4y ago
Haha the people who think that bill gates and jeff bezos is actually sitting on that money in cash, LOL Think also a bit about who is benefitting and making money from instigating this type of jealousy, being exploited as an unpaid click puppet is even worse than being a warehouse worker.
- jonathankoren 4y ago
  > Think also a bit about who is benefitting and making money from instigating this type of jealousy I'll bite. Who? Who has the money, power, and motivation to secretly manipulate the pliable masses to turn against the billionaires, for their own nefarious ends?
  - jseban 4y ago
    > I'll bite. Who? Who has the money, power, and motivation to secretly manipulate the pliable masses to turn against the billionaires, for their own nefarious ends? Everyone who is not a billionaire, but still currently holds a privileged position compared to the pliable masses, will benefit from such propaganda of over simplified "injustice", because if will deflect attention away from their own privilege and keep them safe. You will see this most clearly if you look at ivory tower academics or cultural elite, who love to hate rich capitalists for being greedy, to get the "people" on their side to avoid having their own privilege under scrutiny, which in reality is often just as greedy and selfish.
    - jonathankoren 4y ago
      Who told you this? Petey "Women should never have gotten the vote" Thiel? https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...