7 ms·

I'm a really nice person especially around xmas time, but nobody hardly notices. I donate much more than 0.01% of my earnings to charities and nobody calls me

by menubar 13y ago

I'm a really nice person especially around xmas time, but nobody hardly notices. I donate much more than 0.01% of my earnings to charities and nobody calls me a hero. Who the heck does this Bill Gates guy think he is?

commandar 13y ago
You do realize that Gates (like Warren Buffet) is giving most of his wealth away to charities, right?
- tcgv 13y ago
  That's not very hard to do when you're worth billions of dollars, because even if you give away 99% of your wealth to charity, you'd still be worth tens of millions of dollars at the end of the day. Regular folks can't afford to do that without putting their financial stability at risk. Nevertheless, I do respect Bill for his actions, and I believe all modern tycoons should feel responsible for making the world a better place through charity.
  - alecsmart1 13y ago
    Bill Gates earned his wealth in his own lifetime. He's self made and still wishes to give away most of his wealth. I don't understand how you can criticize someone like that. At the end of the day, he is parting from his hard earned money.
    - dannypgh 13y ago
      By what definition is Bill Gates "self made?" He had a million-dollar trust fund going into life, which let him take risks and exploit opportunities that others could not have. http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ I think you do justice no favors by disregarding the microsoft employees (and acquisitions) that did the overwhelming majority of work to earn that wealth, not Bill Gates. Sometimes in violation of law, and sometimes via questionably legal business practices that forced many people who don't use their products to pay for them. But I guess in capitalism, owner-takes-all and might-makes-right, huh?
      - sauravc 13y ago
        Going from a simple millionaire to creating a company like Microsoft takes a lot of hard work to pull off. But if you want to run with your line of reasoning then no one in the US really qualifies as self-made, from the point of view of let's say a poor person in India. We're all rich to someone who makes less than a dollar a day.
        dannypgh 13y ago
        Completely reasonable. I think wealth is almost always created by communities and not individuals, so I'm skeptical of the idea of anyone being purely "self made." I am willing to concede there is a common definition of the term that is less strict. However I've never heard a definition of the term where a millionaire by birth is "self-made."
        adventured 13y ago
        If all Bill Gates had ever accomplished is that he inherited a million dollar trust fund - if that's all his life had amounted to, living off of that fund, growing that fund - then your argument would have merit. As it is, your argument is about as far away from meritorious as one can be. Your argument attempts to rob Gates of his accomplishment due to the conditions of his birth, it's an extremely dark argument that if applied to the human race would mean that nobody ever deserves individual credit for anything.
        dannypgh 13y ago
        How did I attempt to rob Gates of his accomplishment? I'm not ascribing any value judgment to not being self-made. I think those who think he is self-made clearly have a different definition of the term. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-made_man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-made_man "The appellation 'self-made man' or 'self-made woman' describes a person who was born poor or otherwise disadvantaged, but who achieved great economic success thanks to their own hard work and ingenuity rather than to any inherited fortune, family connections or other privilege." Bill Gates was born with inherited fortune, family connections, and privilege. He was not born poor. That's not his fault any more than it's a poor child's fault that their parents are poor. But it is a fact. A million bucks of wealth, with a conservative safe withdrawal rate of 3%, entitles you to $30k a year. This puts you in the 30th percentile of household income. That's not luxurious, but for zero work at all that's a much better outcome than someone who was born with nothing not working at all. A million in the bank puts you in the 96.3rd percentile of wealth in the US. Say what you want about Bill Gates and his accomplishments, that doesn't change the fact he was born into wealth and inherently disqualified from being able to claim to be "self-made."

by menubar 13y ago

commandar 13y ago

You do realize that Gates (like Warren Buffet) is giving most of his wealth away to charities, right?

tcgv 13y ago
That's not very hard to do when you're worth billions of dollars, because even if you give away 99% of your wealth to charity, you'd still be worth tens of millions of dollars at the end of the day. Regular folks can't afford to do that without putting their financial stability at risk. Nevertheless, I do respect Bill for his actions, and I believe all modern tycoons should feel responsible for making the world a better place through charity.
- alecsmart1 13y ago
  Bill Gates earned his wealth in his own lifetime. He's self made and still wishes to give away most of his wealth. I don't understand how you can criticize someone like that. At the end of the day, he is parting from his hard earned money.
  - dannypgh 13y ago
    By what definition is Bill Gates "self made?" He had a million-dollar trust fund going into life, which let him take risks and exploit opportunities that others could not have. http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ I think you do justice no favors by disregarding the microsoft employees (and acquisitions) that did the overwhelming majority of work to earn that wealth, not Bill Gates. Sometimes in violation of law, and sometimes via questionably legal business practices that forced many people who don't use their products to pay for them. But I guess in capitalism, owner-takes-all and might-makes-right, huh?
    - sauravc 13y ago
      Going from a simple millionaire to creating a company like Microsoft takes a lot of hard work to pull off. But if you want to run with your line of reasoning then no one in the US really qualifies as self-made, from the point of view of let's say a poor person in India. We're all rich to someone who makes less than a dollar a day.
      - dannypgh 13y ago
        Completely reasonable. I think wealth is almost always created by communities and not individuals, so I'm skeptical of the idea of anyone being purely "self made." I am willing to concede there is a common definition of the term that is less strict. However I've never heard a definition of the term where a millionaire by birth is "self-made."
        adventured 13y ago
        If all Bill Gates had ever accomplished is that he inherited a million dollar trust fund - if that's all his life had amounted to, living off of that fund, growing that fund - then your argument would have merit. As it is, your argument is about as far away from meritorious as one can be. Your argument attempts to rob Gates of his accomplishment due to the conditions of his birth, it's an extremely dark argument that if applied to the human race would mean that nobody ever deserves individual credit for anything.
        dannypgh 13y ago
        How did I attempt to rob Gates of his accomplishment? I'm not ascribing any value judgment to not being self-made. I think those who think he is self-made clearly have a different definition of the term. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-made_man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-made_man "The appellation 'self-made man' or 'self-made woman' describes a person who was born poor or otherwise disadvantaged, but who achieved great economic success thanks to their own hard work and ingenuity rather than to any inherited fortune, family connections or other privilege." Bill Gates was born with inherited fortune, family connections, and privilege. He was not born poor. That's not his fault any more than it's a poor child's fault that their parents are poor. But it is a fact. A million bucks of wealth, with a conservative safe withdrawal rate of 3%, entitles you to $30k a year. This puts you in the 30th percentile of household income. That's not luxurious, but for zero work at all that's a much better outcome than someone who was born with nothing not working at all. A million in the bank puts you in the 96.3rd percentile of wealth in the US. Say what you want about Bill Gates and his accomplishments, that doesn't change the fact he was born into wealth and inherently disqualified from being able to claim to be "self-made."