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Warren Buffett gives away his fortune
FORTUNE EXCLUSIVE: The world's second richest man - who's now worth $44 billion - tells editor-at-large Carol Loomis he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

By Carol J. Loomis, FORTUNE editor-at-large
June 25, 2006: 1:42 PM EDT

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

Apparently this is the largest single donation made in history. Good on Warren.

Hmmm Warren Buffet gives most of his money to Bill Gates for charity.
What could possibly go wrong?

Hmmm Warren Buffet gives most of his money to Bill Gates for charity.What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing. Bill Gates is one of the most charitable people in the world and a friend of Warren Buffet.

Their charitable actions are commendable and both of them deserve all of the praise they recieve for giving; even better, Bill Gates routinely gives away money anonymously or quietly which shows his giving is motivated by charity, not publicity.

You can only spend so much... it eventually had to go somewhere...

Good on him. I like that guy...apparently he's not going to leave much money to his kids either, I read somewhere that the rest of his money will go to charity as well when he dies.
Plus, he still lives in a little house in suburbia he bought decades ago.

Add to this the fact that Bill Gates is retiring and spending the rest of his life on philanthropy. Yay, there still is some good left on earth.

Hmmm Warren Buffet gives most of his money to Bill Gates for charity.
What could possibly go wrong?

Not much really. The Gates Foundation is rock-solid and well run, thoughts on Bill, Windows, and Microsoft notwithstanding. As far as I can see, this is an aging Warren Buffet passing the torch to a younger kindred spirit.

It may not be a coincidence that Bill Gates just declared his intentions to step down from most of his remaining responsibilities at Microsoft. That's a lot of charity to administer.

Nothing. Bill Gates is one of the most charitable people in the world and a friend of Warren Buffet.

Their charitable actions are commendable and both of them deserve all of the praise they recieve for giving; even better, Bill Gates routinely gives away money anonymously or quietly which shows his giving is motivated by charity, not publicity.

And yet you viciously attack the rich all the time and demand socialism. lol.

And yet you viciously attack the rich all the time and demand socialism. lol.

No, I viciously attack socialism and demand capitalism...you have me confused with some other fiend.

And yet you viciously attack the rich all the time and demand socialism. lol.

Maybe you're thinking of me. But there's a subtle difference. I attack greed and support philanthropism. One can be a greedy socialist or a philanthropic capitalist. In that case, I'd attack the greedy socialist and defend the philanthropic capitalist.

With regards to government, I support regulation as a check and a balance. Regulation =/= socialism.

Maybe you're thinking of me. But there's a subtle difference. I attack greed and support philanthropism. One can be a greedy socialist or a philanthropic capitalist. In that case, I'd attack the greedy socialist and defend the philanthropic capitalist.

With regards to government, I support regulation as a check and a balance. Regulation =/= socialism.

lol. regulation is just the daughter of socialism. For someone who opposes moral "busybodies," you certainly feel that you have a right to be a busybody when it comes to running someone else's business. If you want to run a business a certain way, start your own.

There's a good chance that if you stepped in and told Bill Gates how to run Microsoft, he wouldn't have had all the money to donate today.

And yet you viciously attack the rich all the time and demand socialism. lol.
unfortunately, the rich that do this are a very small minority...

Nothing. Bill Gates is one of the most charitable people in the world and a friend of Warren Buffet.

Their charitable actions are commendable and both of them deserve all of the praise they recieve for giving; even better, Bill Gates routinely gives away money anonymously or quietly which shows his giving is motivated by charity, not publicity.
They both are awesome people … the BILLIONS that gates has already given and the billions he will keep on giving to causes is most defiantly a good sign that care for our fellow humans is alive and well.

lol. regulation is just the daughter of socialism. For someone who opposes moral "busybodies," you certainly feel that you have a right to be a busybody when it comes to running someone else's business. If you want to run a business a certain way, start your own.

There's a good chance that if you stepped in and told Bill Gates how to run Microsoft, he wouldn't have had all the money to donate today.
no, but it might be more ditributed (if the world was populated by better people); just as they are planning to do...

obviously, they are good examples of rich people, that do not really represent the majority of the members of their wealthy class.

no, but it might be more ditributed (if the world was populated by better people); just as they are planning to do...

obviously, they are good examples of rich people, that do not really represent the majority of the members of their wealthy class.

How would you populate the world with better people? Do these better people represent the majority of the poor class? The middle class?

unfortunately, the rich that do this are a very small minority...
Care to provide some evidence?

You'll notice that philanthropy, and particularly new, properly run business-like charities are absolutely en vogue at the moment. And it's a growing industry.

It's not like rich people don't want to donate. It's just that in many cases they have an eye for financial things, and in the past charities have just not been providing value for money. But these days this is changing, as more and more professional managers are moving into the creation of efficient and effective charities - and you'll notice that those get plenty of money.

Hell, some are even organising charities that don't need donations, because they run like investment firms and use the profits they make through speculation to help people, like the Ford Foundation.

I applaud his move. We need more people like him in this world.

Sadly, not enough people have his giving spirit. The average American gives less than 1% of his/her income to charity. Maybe Bill and Warren can make giving cool... cause if anyone knows what's cool and hip, it's Bill Gates.:p

I applaud his move. We need more people like him in this world.

Sadly, not enough people have his giving spirit. The average American gives less than 1% of his/her income to charity. Maybe Bill and Warren can make giving cool... cause if anyone knows what's cool and hip, it's Bill Gates.:p

Charity happens from those who can afford it. Not many can afford to give 85% of their worth to charity.

lol. regulation is just the daughter of socialism. For someone who opposes moral "busybodies," you certainly feel that you have a right to be a busybody when it comes to running someone else's business. If you want to run a business a certain way, start your own.

There's a good chance that if you stepped in and told Bill Gates how to run Microsoft, he wouldn't have had all the money to donate today.
What would you do with 44 Billion?

I applaud his move. We need more people like him in this world.

Sadly, not enough people have his giving spirit. The average American gives less than 1% of his/her income to charity. Maybe Bill and Warren can make giving cool... cause if anyone knows what's cool and hip, it's Bill Gates.:p
Yeah, the bowl-cut and glasses are all the rage.

Charity happens from those who can afford it. Not many can afford to give 85% of their worth to charity.

Ah, but it's not reasonable to ask many people to do that. If 10% of your income means the difference between having food/medicine/shelter or not, then it's not okay to say you should be giving that much.

However, most people do have the resources to give 10%, and as you go up in income level, the ability to give increases. Hell, this guy's still gonna be a wealthy sonofabitch even after giving away 85%, because it's 85% of 44 Billion dollars.

What would you do with 44 Billion?

porn.

Hell, this guy's still gonna be a wealthy sonofabitch even after giving away 85%, because it's 85% of 44 Billion dollars.
The point is that giving it away would simply be 37.4 billion dollars. Giving it to the Bill Gates foundation means that it could turn into sixty, or a hundred billion dollars, because that charity will be run differently to your Oxfam or something like that.
If you read Buffet's life story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffet), you'll notice one thing - the man knows money. I an imagine that he might just have made a statement here, because he wasn't known for handing out much to charity before: "If you are worthy of my money, you'll get it."

What would you do with 44 Billion?


Well UnrestrainedMerrymaki is going for $400 so Id do her 110,000,000 times.

The point is that giving it away would simply be 37.4 billion dollars. Giving it to the Bill Gates foundation means that it could turn into sixty, or a hundred billion dollars, because that charity will be run differently to your Oxfam or something like that.
If you read Buffet's life story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffet), you'll notice one thing - the man knows money. I an imagine that he might just have made a statement here, because he wasn't known for handing out much to charity before: "If you are worthy of my money, you'll get it."

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm all for ultra-efficient charity organizations that can squeeze the most out of every contribution.

I was just saying that a billionare giving away 85% of his wealth isn't ridiculous or crippling in any way, because he's still keeping billions. But I still applaud the donation, cause it's way more giving than most poeple.

Well UnrestrainedMerrymaki is going for $400 so Id do her 110,000,000 times.
ROFLMAO!

porn.
Wait. Isn't that a charitable foundation?

I applaud his move. We need more people like him in this world.

Sadly, not enough people have his giving spirit. The average American gives less than 1% of his/her income to charity. Maybe Bill and Warren can make giving cool... cause if anyone knows what's cool and hip, it's Bill Gates.:p


Says you. Have anything to back that up?

Wait. Isn't that a charitable foundation?

Well, we are helping to put all those girls through medical school.

unfortunately, the rich that do this are a very small minority...
Not really. It's quite common for the most wealthy amongst us to give quite sizable sums of cash.

They both are awesome people … the BILLIONS that gates has already given and the billions he will keep on giving to causes is most defiantly a good sign that care for our fellow humans is alive and well.

I agree. Even better, both of them are by and large self-made billionaires.

Says you. Have anything to back that up?

Um, about what? The one percent figure? Nothing I'm willing to dig for. I read it on a 'fun facts' list, not in teh interweb. But if you're curious, my official source is Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Page-a-Day Calendar. It 365 pages of goodness, each one with a little blurb at the bottom that gives a fact. That figure was one of those facts.

Bill stated years ago that when he was 50 he was going to give 95% of his money to charity. He'll be 51 at the end of October. Good to see The Bill 50 is shipping on time.

If every capitalist had to give away 95% to charity at 50 then I'd have no problems with capitalism. Let's face it, who wouldn't want to be filthy rich. It's having rich kids is the problem. Imagine spawning a Paris, where is your faith in profit now old woman?

I like how the most evil man in computing is still a saint compared to any other business. Yayy geeks.

lol. regulation is just the daughter of socialism.

That says nothing whatsoever. Checks and balances. Checks and balances.

For someone who opposes moral "busybodies," you certainly feel that you have a right to be a busybody when it comes to running someone else's business. If you want to run a business a certain way, start your own.

It's about limiting power. We're supposed to be a classless society. Without regulation, businesses could do whatever they wished, and that would seriously upset the balance of power. Tell me, are you in favor of doing away with regulation altogether? Allowing working conditions to go back to turn of the century standards? Child labor? Dumping of toxic chemical wherever anyone wished?

WIth regards to morals, how do they affect the balance of power?

There's a good chance that if you stepped in and told Bill Gates how to run Microsoft, he wouldn't have had all the money to donate today.

What does that have to do with anything?

Demonstrating again his excellent sense and wisdom.

+1 Warren Buffet

Bill stated years ago that when he was 50 he was going to give 95% of his money to charity.
Source?

Anyways, he's giving away almost all of his money to charity on his death. He's leaving 100,000,000 or so to each of his kids. He's worth what, $80 billion?