World News

23509 readers

9 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

Bill Gates to give away $200 billion by 2045, says Musk is 'killing' world's poorest children (www.reuters.com)

submitted 6 months ago by remington@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] arsCynic@beehaw.org 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Bollocks. If these rich assholes felt guilty and inclined towards altruism they'd have spent it already instead of "pledging".

"[…] Furthermore, their supposed philanthropy isn't just them giving money away no-questions-asked. More often than not they aim to benefit their coffers and/or virtue signal their “conscience”:

“They are moving away from unfettered, no-strings-attached giving and toward increased donor control over organizations, and are blurring the lines between private investment and public benefit.” —Gilded Giving 2020, by Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery [17].

“Your "Giving Pledge" has a loophole that renders it practically worthless, namely permitting pledgees to simply name charities in their wills. I have found that most billionaires or near billionaires hate giving large sums of money away while alive and instead set up family-controlled foundations to do it for them after death. And these foundations become, more often than not, bureaucracy-ridden sluggards. These rich are delighted to toss off a few million a year in order to remain socially acceptable. But that's it.” —Robert Wilson to Bill Gates, 2010 [18] […]" —What if I paid for all my free software? | arscyni.cc

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Gates foundation has donated over 100 billion already, 60 billion directly from him
That's a bit more than "tossing a few million a year".