Posted on 08/04/2010 8:12:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Thirty-four U.S. billionaires pledged Wednesday to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity as part of a campaign by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Among the billionaires joining the campaign are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller and investor Ronald Perelman.
Gates and Buffett launched "The Giving Pledge" in June to convince hundreds of U.S. billionaires to give away most of their fortune during their lifetime or after their death
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
With how many of them did you speak about that?
Promising to give to someone is not the same as promising to give outside the family. You are missing the point.
No.....I mean it’s a “journalistic” lie/scam.....they already do this....and your comment on what I think about the “rich” is WAY off.
Too bad it costs so much in America to do that today...they think it's better to give their money to "charities" ....they "make" more money doing that, than creating real jobs.
My only point was that it is easy for an old rich man like Buffett to give away his billions, he wont use it up in his remaining time on earth anyway.
Good point. I've got a friend who's in the 20-30 million range, and another in the 50-60 million range, but none who are worth billions. Allow me to rephrase.
I can't think of any billionaires whom I believe are appreciative of the value of individual liberty the way that I appreciate liberty. I love liberty far more than security or even life itself. It's my believe that by the time a man has scraped up a billion dollars, he's long past placing liberty on a pedestal above life itself, because his liberty comes cheap to him. A few mil here, a few mil there... presto, security, which to him equals liberty.
My liberty comes from God alone, and is to be cherished.
later
Malcom Forbes and hist children (e.g., Steve Forbes) shares all the beliefs you enunciated.
Oprah Winfrey asked Forbes Sr how he managed to raise such "normal" children given the lifestyle and "all those boat parties." He replied: "Are you kidding? My children hated those parties: they were the ones to clean the boat afterward."
I believe it was also Malcolm Forbes who said, "The only difference between the rich people and the poor people is that the rich people have money." Meaning that in all other respects they are quite the same: some are moral, some are not, some are patriots and some are not, etc. This is especially true in thi country, where most "rich" people are self-made.
Your statement is factually incorrect for yet another reason. A self-made "rich" person was an entrepreneur, i.e., exhibited behaviors that were risk-seeking by definition. So much for the supposed by you love for security. People who love security do not leave high-paying jobs at IBM to start a new high-tech firm. Nor do they leave million-dollar jobs at Goldman Sacks to start a new hedge funds.
You are a thoughtful person, and I don't mean to offend you, but you view of the "rich" is straight from the leftist propaganda --- in the newspapers, movies, literature, university lectures --- which we are constantly bombarded.
That's a common mistake, based on the fale assumption that money can be used on only on consumption of material things. People also have dreams, and dream even more when their basic needs are satisfied.
A person endowing a library, a university institute for a study of what he thinks is important, an orhestra, etc. realizes his dream while he is still on this earth, although money continues to be spend long afterwards.
Liberal foundations and the UN profit...
The one problem with the rich in this country is an ignorance of what allowed them to become wealthy.
They'll make more mischief than good with this. Just more "vanity philanthropies" with their names on them.
You seem to lump everyone who makes over x dollars into one category. I thought we were talking about "billionaires?" How many of them have you spoken to personally?
If one of those billionaires in this story gives half his money to the NRA or the Catholic Church, I will retract my opinion.
Since it seems liberals don't believe I have one, perhaps they won't even try to tax it!
They’re going to give away half their wealth to foundations they control? Whoa. That’s just the pinnacle of charitable giving. Just a minute, I’ve got to mop up some puke.
Sign me up, too! I have no money left in my IRA, savings, or piggy bank due to having to support my 87 year old mother who is living with me for over 3 years. She has Alzheimer’s, is blind, and has serious heart disease. I am a 24/7 caregiver who gets zip, squat, bupkis, nada for this. I just ran into my own darn tree and the insurance company totaled my 1993 Ford Explorer. I’m keeping it as I only have 100k miles on it and it runs great. Just don’t have the money to fix the 3800 in damage.
Send me money, you crazy billionaires, you! Please?
Lost me right there. Warren Buffet Table and Bilious Gates should go and join $oros in China and leave the United States the heck alone. Creepy stinkin' megalomaniacs.
Do you see how disconnected these statements are?
I agree with you that most of them are liberal. But to say that they don't understand freedom is something altogether different.
Food for thought: JFK was a liberal but a patriot who opposed communism precisely because it stifled freedom.
You neglected to tell us how many billionaires you’ve discussed these things with.
Sorry to hear that you don't bother to adhere to Ten Commandments, one of which prohibits us from serving as false witness. You make a disparaging, wholesale remark about a group of people. The onus is on you to prove your allegations. In their absence this amounts to defamation.
The onus is also on you, a supposed conservative, to explain why your views on this matter are identical to those of Marx: it was his claim that the economic conditions (membership in an economic class) determine the person's outlook on life and his behavior.
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