World's second richest man donates $31 BILLION (80% of his total wealth) to charity

Dave!

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060626/WIRE/206260312/1117/news

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/06/25/us-billionaire-buffett-to-give-most-of-his-fortune-to-gates-foundation/

eh..... nice guy

If he's got any kids I'd say they're cursing the sh*t out of him

Although I suppose, if you've got $1 billion, what difference does it make if you've got 2? You'll never get around to spending 1! Or you'd have to try really hard anyway

What do ye make of this?

Tar.Aldarion

Saw it all on the news, good man for giving it to charity tbh. That's a lot of money!

New_Departure06

Only $6.3 billion left. What a saint.

monkeyfudge

Did he buy $31 Billion's worth of Hanley Centre scratch cards?

iFight

Thats a good guy, doubt the children would care tbh, still will be given enough to be very well off

Ruu_Old

Wow thats alot of money to give away. Well I suppose he earned it, so he can do what he wants, fair play.

Terry

fair play to him.
he's 75 years old. that about the average age that people reach and you can't spend the money when you're dead.

michelle_ie

julep wrote:

fair play to him.
he's 75 years old. that about the average age that people reach and you can't spend the money when you're dead.

he is not 75 anyway he was born in 1955

smilydude

Its an amazing amount of money to give to charity! Just hope it gets spent where its most needed.

YeAh!

Wow! Kinda makes that €2 you throw into charity boxes kinda futile.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Fair play to him. Thats probably the most decent thing anybody has ever done!

Tar.Aldarion

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote:

Fair play to him. Thats probably the most decent thing anybody has ever done!

Ya...sure it is...


Don't stop YeAH!, it all makes a difference.

The_Minister

New_Departure06 wrote:

Only $6.3 billion left. What a saint.

Be fair, it's a greater percentage then you'll ever give.

Robbo

monkeyfudge wrote:

Did he buy $31 Billion's worth of Hanley Centre scratch cards?

He signed up with every chugger he met on one Saturday afternoon whilst shopping.

Terry

michelle_ie wrote:

he is not 75 anyway he was born in 1955

from the first link:

The decision disclosed Sunday marked a jarring turnabout for the 75-year-old "Oracle of Omaha," who had claimed for years that his $44 billion stock holdings would fund philanthropy after his death.

New_Departure06

Firespinner wrote:

Be fair, it's a greater percentage then you'll ever give.

LOL Spose.

Kintarō Hattori

YeAh! wrote:

Wow! Kinda makes that €2 you throw into charity boxes kinda futile.

Not really. If you don't have much to begin with, then that few euro can be alot.

seamus

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Dave!

seamus wrote:

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Well he gave it to Bill Gates' charity, I don't know how much better that is than other charity organisations, but if I were to guess I'd say a higher percentage of the cash goes where it should go.

Patricide

Fair play to that guy, thats a lot of people with homes vaccines education and all that.

Skyuser

Banks would pay about €500,000 a week interest on that.

Ciaran500

But what will the Gates foundation do with $60 billion that you could't do with $29 billion

Mossy Monk

this is amazing news. heard it on the news last night and thought i misheard the billion part. fair ****s to him

Gurgle

Candidate for sainthood tbh.
(and thats high praise from an aethiest)

HelterSkelter

seamus wrote:

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Were you drunk when you wrote that?

seamus

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Earthhorse

That 80% figure gets bandied about quite a lot but there are very few reputable charities that spend that much on administration.

The Gates Foundation only gives to charities which meet with very stringent criteria and can prove they are making a difference in the area they work. For my money he couldn't have given to a better foundation nor been more generous with the amount of his contribution.

ionapaul

He actually has his own foundation set up but recognised that Gates's foundation would be the most appropriate vehicle for his money, or at least the huge amount he had to donate. Great stuff, he and Gates are legends and hopefully really will put it up to the other mega-billionaires who don't donate as much or waste their money on football teams, giant pleasure boats and other things.

HelterSkelter

seamus wrote:

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

What charity would that be? Where are you getting these figures from?

stevejazzx

seamus wrote:

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

80% of 31billion is 24.8billion which is 24thousand million - i think! - now I've seen some large admin costs in the past....
the charity could give 98percent directly to various causes and still have 500million leftover for running costs and admin....

Which begs the question, with all this money in the world how is that peope are starving?

shnaek

Fair play to him. Money has such a corrupting influence on most that the more they get the bigger asshole they become This guy still lives in the $17,000 house he bought in the 50's. Obviously money didn't corrupt him. So fair play. Maybe administration etc will eat up some of that money, but I like to think that the majority of it will go to the fight against disease, and to education - so thumbs up.

seamus

Here's a good link from a quick google, just to prove that it does happen:
http://www.sos.state.ga.us/pressrel/020604.htm

It should be said though that most charities keep their administration costs low - between 20% and 40%

The actual meaning of my above statement was more to do with the money aspect, as opposed to saying "charity is a waste" - throwing money at many of the poorer countries will not make the poverty go away (much like our health system). Much of it is caused by corrupt or malicious "redistribution" of the funds by that nation's officials.

The Gates foundation is probably in a unique position, in that it can generate massive cash for itself by simply investing a certain portion of its fortune.
It could probably make the gross GDP of many poor countries in pure interest from their reserves. I do like its modus operandi too - eradicate disease and educate the people and the countries can sort themselves out.

MidnightQueen

My god if i had a plate in my hand i would have dropped it when i heard the billion part! Thinking about people in need when he could have kept it all to himself! He deserves somthing good in return!

Kimbot

Have to say he is a legend for giving that kind of money to charity!! Bill gates didn't even give that much!!

Ponster

jonny24ie wrote:

Have to say he is a legend for giving that kind of money to charity!! Bill gates didn't even give that much!!

Actually Gates is giving all of his fortune to the same foundation, leaving ~4% for his family.

HelterSkelter

seamus wrote:

Here's a good link from a quick google, just to prove that it does happen:
http://www.sos.state.ga.us/pressrel/020604.htm

Awh come on, look at the charities listed - PROFESSIONAL FIRE FIGHTERS OF GEORGIA, GEORGIA STATE LODGE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, INC., COMMITTEE FOR MISSING CHILDREN, INC., etc etc. I don't see any charities there that I ever heard of. All the reputable charities publish their figures and people can easily check how much money gets to the people that need it.

seamus wrote:

It should be said though that most charities keep their administration costs low - between 20% and 40%

GOAL keep theirs at 5%

seamus wrote:

The actual meaning of my above statement was more to do with the money aspect, as opposed to saying "charity is a waste" - throwing money at many of the poorer countries will not make the poverty go away (much like our health system). Much of it is caused by corrupt or malicious "redistribution" of the funds by that nation's officials.

Yup you have a point but going around making exagerated statements like "up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it" is very unfair. If you don't agree with giving to charity, that's fine, but you shouldn't try to convience others not to give by making statements like this.

seamus

HelterSkelter wrote:

If you don't agree with giving to charity, that's fine, but you shouldn't try to convience others not to give by making statements like this.

In fairness, if you read my statement again, I was is no way attempting to discourage people from giving to charity. Otherwise I would have used words like "most charities" and "waste". I have no problem with people giving to charities, but I do have a problem with people who just blindly throw whatever spare cash they have at the latest person/charity who comes looking for money, without doing a little research first.

</offtopic>

Earthhorse

seamus wrote:

I have no problem with people giving to charities, but I do have a problem with people who just blindly throw whatever spare cash they have at the latest person/charity who comes looking for money, without doing a little research first.

But that isn't the case in this instance. In fact, you couldn't find a more polar opposite case. Buffet's an incredibly astute and intelligent man. He didn't inherit his billions or build it up by happenstance. Indeed, the fact that he had previously decided to donate his money to charity after his death and then changed his mind when he saw what Gates was doing, is a testament to his intelligence and the fact that he did consider the decision before making it.

HelterSkelter

seamus wrote:

In fairness, if you read my statement again, I was is no way attempting to discourage people from giving to charity. Otherwise I would have used words like "most charities" and "waste". I have no problem with people giving to charities, but I do have a problem with people who just blindly throw whatever spare cash they have at the latest person/charity who comes looking for money, without doing a little research first.

</offtopic>

OK, you've explained yourself and I accept and agree with what you say. What I had a problem with though is your two earlier posts where you just generalise and say that giving to charity is a waste of money. A lot of people go around making unfounded statements like this and it can put people off giving to the decent charities.

seamus wrote:

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

seamus wrote:

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

seamus

OK. Off-the-cuff remark. I hadn't even read the article at that point.

Dooom

Isn't Bill giving however much of his worth to cancer research?
I feel terrible for his kids, iirc they only get $10 million each :rolleyes:

YeAh!

After donating 80% of his wealth, I take it he is no longer the second richest man?

Dave!

True, but he's still pretty rich!

jesus_thats_gre

Sure Gates has committed/given 50% of his wealth to charity.

sock puppet

YeAh! wrote:

After donating 80% of his wealth, I take it he is no longer the second richest man?

He's still a billionaire with more money than most people could dream of.

Fair play to him for donating so much though