Milton Friedman once noted that most businessmen are anti-capitalists. However, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are moving into a category all their own, putting their vast fortunes behind support for everything from philanthrostatism to just plain statism.
... Mr. Gates has in the meantime become a full-blown Global Salvationist, dedicated to solving the problems of the world’s poor by not merely doling out his own money but by “leveraging” that of hapless taxpayers, muscling pharmaceutical companies, and bugging the entire corporate sector to divert its attention from making money to solving social problems. Indeed, there is a danger that the Saviour from Seattle may do as much damage in the process of giving away his fortune (and that of Mr. Buffett) as he did good in building it.
"One should doubtless keep an open mind...though open at both ends, like the food pipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." -- Northrop Frye, 'The Great Code'
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Bill Gates' "dangerous pile of cash"
Peter Foster, on the mark, as usual:
there is not enough money on the planet to solve all the problems.
ReplyDeleteYes they made a lot of money and are brilliant in what they do - however it's their money and they should spend it how they wish. I, on the otherhand do not have an income in the billions, so I will continue to modestly support the charities and causes that are dear to my heart. Don't much care what Buffet or Gates spend their money on - when its gone its gone and you can't take it to heaven. Cheers. FernStAlbert
ReplyDeleteFern,
ReplyDeleteYes, they were brilliant in what they do/did. They are also free to do whatever they like with their money. Foster, I'm quite certain, also believes they should be free to whatever they like with it. However, they are not entitled to be free from criticism. They seem not to understand the system that they benefited enormously from and it's value to everyone. In fact what they advocate undermines that system. Even worse, on top of spending their own money they attempt to get governments to ante up tax payers money for their projects. They've also been trying to con other billionaires into following their idiotic example. So, in the special case of Gates and Buffett their huge piles of cash are clearly dangerous.
World will be much safer from various dumb and dangerous projects if we cap lifetime earnings of a corporation to about 150 million and lifetime income of an individual to about 20 million (in 2010 US dollars).
ReplyDelete