Hey it's their money so they have the right to do what they want with it. IMO the best use of 1 billion+ is to develop products and services that are needed, expensive to develop, and in short supply. If someone identifies such a product or service that cannot be developed profitably (e.g. medicine for very poor people; very long-term research projects; non-economic goals etc), then charity is a way to provide it. There are plenty of people who will do something for profit, far less who will do it at a loss for the greater good. Being a billionaire means you have the luxury of not having to serve the interests of the market, whilst retaining the ability to engage in expensive projects requiring heavy financing. That's a niche that smart rich people like Buffett and Gates can fill. They may fail but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to try.
From Matthew... 1. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" 2. "And the King will answer and say to them, âAssuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.â Never read anything about only giving to poor people you like....
The problem is that they also use their wealth to force their self-serving worldview on others through government action.
One may become wealthy due to extreme talent or luck but staying wealthy requires certain psycholocal profile. Forget for a moment that many children are taught they don't deserve success. Forget that it's common to think that wealthy people are greedy, ruthles or otherwise "bad" in some way (we see lots of hartred towards the wealthy even in this thread); how many people want to think of themselves as a "bad" person? The problem is lots of people don't want the actual wealth. They think of wealth as buying that expensive car or holiday. What most people want is to spend while being wealthy is about preserving what you have in the first place. "A penny saved is a penny earned."
half-measures won't work. but the clean wealth reset may do the trick: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202171
LOL, you really should research the Gates Foundation. It might as well be renamed the Genocide Foundation. Silly sheeple.
Read this book for some good laughs http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917 Its like when Joe The Plumber was worried he'd have his millions taxed away.
Not all of which is totally selfless. Bill Gates is a strong advocate of the "Climate Change" idea. At the same time he has been an investor in biofuels: he owns about 50% (or a few billion worth) of a large ethanol factory. A mandatory propotion of "biofuel" is added to petrol in the US... thanks to the efforts of "Climate Change" lobby.