http://nonprofiteer.net/2006/07/06/buffettgates-is-a-puzzlement/ Nonprofits Without The Nonsense--and that's just the tip of the iceberg! Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:23:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://nonprofiteer.net/2006/07/06/buffettgates-is-a-puzzlement/#comment-4 Sun, 09 Jul 2006 00:16:37 +0000 http://nonprofiteer.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/buffettgates-is-a-puzzlement/#comment-4 On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog, right? So I can pretend to be the man explaining himself:
1. I’m contrarian. Rich guys live one way; I live another.
2. I’m turned off by the proliferation of new foundations. Way too many doing the same thing. The tax advantage the Nonprofiteer mentions, I think it’s wrong. Maybe Congress can change it. Maybe if Warren Buffett declines to put up his name in lights, Joe-Schmoe-net-worth-$5-million will consider the same option.
3. I’m not like Gates. He and the foundation barons of the last century–Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie–made their fortunes as industrialists. I’m an investor. The virtues of investing are (they tell me) diversification, patience, and deferring to local experts–all of which discourage the formation of bold new enterprises.
4. The Nonprofiteer presumes I am concerned about the future. I guess that’s right, but I’m skeptical about philanthropy. I am not sure charity ever changed anything systemic. But because the thought of leaving billions upon billions to my kids turns my stomach, I have to make some kind of giveaway. To what? Specific causes–Waterborne illness! Literacy! Infant mortality!–seem both too narrow and too wide as targets. So I give my proxy to someone else.
5. If the money turns out badly spent, posterity will blame the other guy.

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