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| Jun 26th, 2006 10:21 PM | |
| KevinTheOmnivore |
GOOD THING HE'S GIVING MORE MONEY TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD SO THEY CAN KILL MORE BABIES! There ya go, Ziggy. |
| Jun 26th, 2006 06:02 PM | |
| ziggytrix | yeah but it'll get ignored too, because there's no fun in calling people shitheads for believing it's great to spend money on 3rd world medicine. |
| Jun 26th, 2006 05:41 PM | |
| Miss Modular |
Warren Buffett to give away...a lot of money! Whoops. I didn't realize this was the second Buffett article. Anyway, I hope Mr. & Mrs. Gates use his contributions wisely.  Sorry.  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/bu...Rf5c8I2bVpxhfA June 26, 2006 Buffett Always Planned to Give Away His Billions By JEREMY W. PETERS Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and executive, said today that he never seriously considered doing anything with his $44 billion fortune except giving it all away. "I'm not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth, particularly when 6 billion others have much poorer hands than we do in life," Mr. Buffett said at the New York Public Library, where he was appearing with Bill and Melinda Gates, the only Americans richer than he is. Mr. Buffett said on Sunday that he would give away 85 percent of his fortune — about $37.4 billion worth of stock in Berkshire Hathaway, the company he runs — to five charitable foundations, with the greatest share, about $31 billion, going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to improving health and education, especially in poor nations. Known as the Oracle of Omaha as much for his outspoken detachment from the usual habits and pretensions of the super-rich as for his spectacular financial success and folksy, astute investing advice, Mr. Buffett joked today about the attitudes he hears expressed by some others in his income bracket. "I love it when I'm around the country club, and I hear people talking about the debilitating effects of a welfare society," he said. "At the same time, they leave their kids a lifetime and beyond of food stamps. Instead of having a welfare officer, they have a trust officer. And instead of food stamps, they have stocks and bonds." In addition to the Gates Foundation, charities run by each of Mr. Buffet's three children and one named for his deceased wife will receive large gifts of Berkshire stock — a total of $6.4 billion — from Mr. Buffett. He made the gifts official this morning by signing commitment letters to the five foundations. "The first three letters are easy," he said as he did so. "I just sign, 'Dad.' " Mr. Buffett, the grandson of a grocer and the son of a stockbroker, has never made any secret of his distaste for inherited wealth, and has often said that he had no intention of making mega-heirs and heiresses of his children. So it was not surprising that he said on Sunday that he would give away more than $37 billion of his fortune. What was surprising, however, was that he outlined specifically what he would do with the bulk of his wealth while he was still very much alive. He had said previously that he would wait to do so in his will. Apparently mindful of the place in history held by philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and J. Paul Getty, Mr. Buffett, 75, said today that he hoped his giving would inspire other wealthy people to give generously as well, and referred several times to John D. Rockefeller Sr. "I would hope that a few of them would pick up on this model; I think it's a sensible model," he said. Not that his children will be left empty-handed. Mr. Buffett said that the assets he is not giving to charity today — about $3 billion worth — will be divided up later between other philanthropic causes and his family. His children, he said, were not at all disappointed not to be receiving the lion's share of his fortune. "They've known all along my views on inherited wealth, and share them," he said in a news conference this afternoon. "They have money that most people would dream of. They're lucky, in that respect, when they selected their parents." To thank him for the gift to their foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Gates presented Mr. Buffett with copies from their personal library of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." "I think Warren will not only be known as the world's greatest investor, but the world's greatest investor for good," said Mr. Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, who recently announced his intention to leave the management of Microsoft largely to others starting in 2008 and concentrate on charitable work. Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates met in 1991 and have become close friends and business associates since then, investing in each other's companies and often traveling together or playing bridge online. They will appear along with Mrs. Gates on the Charlie Rose program on PBS this evening in a joint interview. Asked why Mr. Buffett chose the Gates Foundation as the recipient of the bulk of his wealth, he told reporters today, "I've got some people who can give it away better than I can." |
