Posted on 06/25/2006 1:14:44 PM PDT by HAL9000
Excerpt -
SEATTLE - Warren Buffett, the world's second richest man, is starting this year to give much of his wealth to charity, with the bulk of over $40 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.In a letter dated Monday, Buffett, who is chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., tells Bill and Melinda Gates that the first annual donation would go to the foundation this year. It's expected to total about $1.5 billion.
Up until now, all the money given away by the Gates Foundation has come from Bill and Melinda Gates.
The money from Buffett comes with a signficant catch. The letter says Buffett wants all his money to be distributed in the year it is donated, not added to the foundation's assets for future giving. He is giving the foundation a few years to get used to the idea of giving away a lot more money.
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(Excerpt) Read more at king5.com ...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
A quick look suggests that about 100 countries are at or about "replacement" levels of fertility, or 2.1 kids per woman, while another 130 countries are above replacement.
Almost of the big countries are below replacement: Russia, China, Japan, Germany, the European Union as a whole. And, surprisingly to me, Brazil. USA is very slightly below replacement.
The only really big countries I can see that are above replacement are Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. Most of the countries with very high fertility rates are small, very poor, and have a high infant and childhood mortality rate. They likely have to have lots of babies to have 1 or 2 make it to adulthood.
The rich are a disgrace to the system that allowed them the freedom to acquire such wealth.
They (corporations and individuals) routinely support liberalism.
Its not funny to know that big companies like one I work for(Wal-Mart) acknowledge their support of La Raza and the Congressional Black Caucus, among other groups.
By the way, Wal-Mart's Lee Scott did speak in a "Wal-Mart World" publication a few years ago of "my friend Warren Buffett."
Soros and Gates and Buffett have joined forces to launch a massive fleet of high altitude zeppelins disguised to look like clouds. They airships are packed with highly trained soldiers outfitted in matching jumpsuits who only await word from the secret island lair of the three for orders to attack.
...fortunately for the civilized world, their entire system is Windows-based and keeps crashing.
Talk show host Bruce Williams used to say that a good businessman gave money to both political parties.
So that's about buying a place at the table, not about any all-around Conservative belief of Gates and others.
Since the rest of us get taxed to make up for lost tax revenues, why should the U.S. Government pass up billions of dollars in taxes so that the truly rich can give that money to their pet causes?
Gates and Buffet have publicly spoken against repealing estate taxes for the rest of us.
Fine.
Then let's also repeal estate tax exceptions for the Foundations of the super-rich.
...fortunately for the civilized world, their entire system is Windows-based and keeps crashing.
Tell me about the MAC operating system that runs windows applications.......................
Estate taxes only kick in at $1.5 million ($3 mil for married couples)....
That would be Steve Jobs, who seeks to battle the Soros, Buffett, Gates triad. He's currently constructing a secret airforce for 10,000 supersonic bi-planes in an underground facility in Silicon Valley.
There is absolutely zero value in either praising or hammering Buffett or Gates for their spending proclivities.
I agree, Both of these individuals are giving away fortunes to many good causes and also many causes that some of aren't into. Bottom line, they're giving and because of them millions of lives will benefit even if only in a small way.
The fact that some of their money end up in a cause we may not agree with is incidental compared with the good they are doing, selflessly. Some of these posts I read say much more about the authors than about the targets of their wrath.
Perhaps in a thousand years we will look back on these assclowns and think "you know Bill, we wouldnt even have a colony on Pluto if those Nazis in 2006 had had their way with "zero pop. growth". Think about it.
Better to give the $$ to charity than for the Federal Tax ghouls to confiscate the wealth upon death.
YEAH....he's a proponent of the ESTATE TAX - a tax he will NOT be paying.....while those with smaller investments, say small business people (including lots of women and minorities) who have started and made successful businesses, but NOT AS SUCCESSFUL as his, WILL pay estate taxes.....
YEAH, pity the poor business owner who has built a business, and he and his wife die......with an estate of 2-3 Million.....they're RICH, I guess??? (They are what makes America.....so let's kick them again when they're dead.)
Not so fast.
The Gates Foundation is racist in who they fund. Notice that the "Gates Millennium Scholars" program funds all races except Europeans. It even funds Asian Americans who achieve out of proportion to their population in the US, so they can't claim it's to help those who can't help themselves. Only European-Americans are excluded.
Gates Millennium ScholarsAfrican Americans, American Indians/Alaska natives, Asian Pacific Americans, and Hispanic Americans with academic promise, unmet financial need, and demonstrated leadership.
I certainly don't agree with you. Would you say it was nobody's business if they saw someone robbing a store or murdering someone, because they were exercising freedom of choice?
Your money is your own, to spend as you like. But not absolutely. If you spend it on an evil cause, others have a perfect right to object. If you used it to hire hitmen to kill someone, for instance, the fact that it's your money would not excuse the purpose for which you are spending it. Regretably, killing babies is legal in this country since a group of imperial judges imposed Roe v. Wade on us. But that doesn't make it right or desirable or a good thing to spend money on.
Paying estate taxes is voluntary. You can give away all your money to charity and pay none. Don't have to be a billionaire to do that.
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