MSFT Co-founder Giving Half of His Money Away

[JMcEntegart]

Charitable billionaires are promising half of their money to charity.

MSFT Co-founder Giving Half of His Money Away : Read more

 

[chickenhoagie]

we need more people like this these days..too much seperation of wealth. people have more money than they can spend these days, which is why i salute people like this to actually realizing this.

who needs their own personal jumbo jetliner?

 

[tharkis842]

Yah know, if they'd donate some of that to the american people in need all around this country, we could turn this economy around and get people back to work. Bring businesses back to our shores.

 

[cheepstuff]

philanthropists rock.

 

[fball922]

How much money do people need? As much as they can acquire from the fruits of their labor. Props to Allen for giving away so much of his money, very honorable, but don't criticize the people who don't, or think that if you can somehow get wealthy people to just give up their wealth all of the problems of the world would be solved... Its their money, they can do with it what they like, and that is OK by me

 

[Pyroflea]

I'll take 6 or 7 digits if you don't mind

Good on him. It gets to the point where you realize you have everything you could ever want, and you eventually get over the whole obsession with material possessions. He did a wonderful thing

 

[mackinator]

[citation][nom]tharkis842[/nom]Yah know, if they'd donate some of that to the american people in need all around this country, we could turn this economy around and get people back to work. Bring businesses back to our shores.[/citation]

dont say stupid things, switching whos hands the moneys in doesnt help the economy.please take an economy class before commenting on it

 

[johnnylawman01]

He better do it before he dies. Cause if he doesn't, after the end of this year the Government will take over half that if he doesn't!

 

[JOSHSKORN]

Can I have some of that money, please??? I need a house in a nice area rebuilt from the ground up made to ADA specification. Not much of that around.

 

[the_krasno]

The other half is still 6.75 billion bucks. Where is THAT going?

 

[m-manla]

[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]The other half is still 6.75 billion bucks. Where is THAT going?[/citation]

Gotta have some left for the family.

 

[eddieroolz]

These philanthropists should be commended a lot more. They barely get any attention anywhere - all the while Jobs and his cronies make headlines every single damn week for some incomprehensible reason. For comparison, Jobs doesn't even take part in philanthropist acts - he keeps all that for himself. Shows the difference in character of people.

 

[falchard]

I am personally opposed to philanthropy. I think its a greedy way to look nice and does not progress humanity. Just think about all the good Charities with multi-billion dollar funds have done for the world. Thats right not much for the resources they have available. However, look what materialistic consumerism has brought us. Rapid tech advancement, large infrastructures, and a method of wealth-redistribution people are happy to work for.
For profit pharmecuticals have done far more to cure diseases then any charity has been able to muster with greater resources.

 

[tharkis842]

[citation][nom]mackinator[/nom]dont say stupid things, switching whos hands the moneys in doesnt help the economy.please take an economy class before commenting on it[/citation]

Just because i didn't elaborate on WHICH people should directly take hold of the money doesn't mean i don't know what i'm talking about. Before you call someone stupid, maybe you should take a look at our current situation, and the 30's. Money hoarding leads to economic downfall in the long run. I think it's a good thing he's giving away half of his money, but there's a point when being wealthy becomes ridiculous. When you have enough to buy pretty much anything you'd ever want in life, you've earned far past your share.
It doesn't take a genious to figure out how many jobs could be moved back to the U.S. which would cut production costs, increasing profit margins, and increasing the amount of dollars in the AMERICAN workforce' pockets. Maybe YOU don't have to worry about feeding your family like everyone else, but the rest of us do. When the percentage of people out of work reaches double digits and doesn't fall for over a year, there's an obvious problem. I don't remember saying give everyone $2 million to blow on Corvettes. Maybe you should think before you speak before calling someone stupid.

 

[pojih]

[citation][nom]tharkis842[/nom]Just because i didn't elaborate on WHICH people should directly take hold of the money doesn't mean i don't know what i'm talking about. Before you call someone stupid, maybe you should take a look at our current situation, and the 30's. Money hoarding leads to economic downfall in the long run. I think it's a good thing he's giving away half of his money, but there's a point when being wealthy becomes ridiculous. When you have enough to buy pretty much anything you'd ever want in life, you've earned far past your share.It doesn't take a genious to figure out how many jobs could be moved back to the U.S. which would cut production costs, increasing profit margins, and increasing the amount of dollars in the AMERICAN workforce' pockets. Maybe YOU don't have to worry about feeding your family like everyone else, but the rest of us do. When the percentage of people out of work reaches double digits and doesn't fall for over a year, there's an obvious problem. I don't remember saying give everyone $2 million to blow on Corvettes. Maybe you should think before you speak before calling someone stupid.[/citation]

LOL. The jobs will come back as soon as people decide they will go back to the line for the same monetary compensation as someone in Taiwan.

There is no ceiling for how much money you can make, no "past your share". Just because you have a rough lot in your life doesn't mean you need to go around pointing fingers at people with more money than you - its not a good quality to have.

 

[tharkis842]

[citation][nom]pojih[/nom]LOL. The jobs will come back as soon as people decide they will go back to the line for the same monetary compensation as someone in Taiwan. There is no ceiling for how much money you can make, no "past your share". Just because you have a rough lot in your life doesn't mean you need to go around pointing fingers at people with more money than you - its not a good quality to have.[/citation]

What jobs? Kinda hard to get a job when all available positions are filled and businesses keep going under. Businesses have a hard time staying afloat when people don't have money to spend, or don't have jobs. You obviously didn't understand anything I said. I seem to remember only pointing fingers at those pointing their fingers and doing the name calling. It's disappointing how ignorant a few of you can be.

 

[derstarke]

[citation][nom]chickenhoagie[/nom]who needs their own personal jumbo jetliner?[/citation]

Of course, the 13.5 billion leftover can still get you plenty of Jumbo Jetliners....

 

[del35]

I can't imagine the propagandist and con-artist Steve Jobs doing something like this.

 

[ares1214]

[citation][nom]del35[/nom]I can't imagine the propagandist and con-artist Steve Jobs doing something like this.[/citation]

haha, thats probably because you have to make decent products and profit before you can give that magnitude of money!

 

[Antimatter79]

[citation][nom]mackinator[/nom]dont say stupid things, switching whos hands the moneys in doesnt help the economy.please take an economy class before commenting on it[/citation]

I agree. And if the half that don't have it were so adept at handling large sums of money, they'd already have it. Quite often, legitimately earned money seems to find its way to people who know how to manage it in the first place.

 

[Antimatter79]

[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]The other half is still 6.75 billion bucks. Where is THAT going?[/citation]

It's his money, it'll go wherever the heck he wants it go to, minus estate taxes and attorneys fees, etc.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]I am personally opposed to philanthropy. I think its a greedy way to look nice and does not progress humanity. Just think about all the good Charities with multi-billion dollar funds have done for the world. Thats right not much for the resources they have available. However, look what materialistic consumerism has brought us. Rapid tech advancement, large infrastructures, and a method of wealth-redistribution people are happy to work for.For profit pharmecuticals have done far more to cure diseases then any charity has been able to muster with greater resources.[/citation]
What? For profit pharmaceuticals make almost nothing off vaccines, that's why they are heavily subsidized, otherwise they'd never bother to make them. There's a lot more money in treating ongoing symptoms than actual cures (e.g. depression, not a single depression pill cures depression, they all treat the symptoms resulting in you having to take them the rest of your life - or you toughen up - life sucks, get a helmet). The WHO is the one responsible for the eradication of smallpox, not private industry, and with philanthropy from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and other charities and governments the WHO has been making significant inroads against polio and was going to have it eradicated in the next few years (at least until the Jenny McCarthy's of the world started the vaccine scares resulting in some African gov'ts throwing up blocks to prevent vaccinations).

There are plenty of charities out there that do plenty of very good work. Just because you don't hear about the good they're doing on a daily basis doesn't mean they aren't helping the world. However, good things hardly make the news, people rather hear about what's going wrong. Case in point; how many oil wells do you hear about that are working perfectly on the news, there's hundreds of thousands of them? How many iPhone4 antenna stories are there? How many stories about actresses that aren't total screw-ups like Lohan do you see?

 

[edilee]

I have never understood why people donate money to universities and colleges...these already have plenty of money...I mean people DO pay to go there so they are covered. I have a customer that is a dean I believe at a college and you would not believe the silly things they get with donated money...things they do not need and has nothing to do with the education of students...it's more of a "look what I got for me and the school paid for it" type thing. They need to donate to foundations that need the money and not places that already are making profit.

 

[zachary k]

so, the Microsoft billionaires are giving money away while Steve jobs is..... doing what now?

 

[rohitbaran]

Well, the people's money is being returned to them. The cycle is complete.