Summary
Warren Buffett gave $1.1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to family foundations and detailed plans for distributing his $147 billion fortune after his death.
His three children will oversee giving the remainder within 10 years, with designated successors in case they predecease him.
Buffett, 94, reaffirmed his belief in avoiding dynastic wealth, favoring philanthropy instead.
Over the years, he has donated $55 billion to the Gates Foundation but plans to shift focus to his family’s foundations.
Buffett continues leading Berkshire Hathaway while preparing Greg Abel as his successor.
I once met a wealth manager for a billionaire whose entire job was to donate money as effectively as possible, focusing on infrastructure and education projects in Central and South America. She explained that the challenges are often unexpected.
For example, most smaller local organizations struggle to absorb large sums of money efficiently. Take, for instance, a group that builds homes for those in need. A sudden donation of millions of dollars can be too difficult to manage efficiently. So they try to be mindful of local needs, build trust, and build long-term partnerships.
So, why not just support many small communities? Well, a billion dollars could fund a thousand 1 million$ projects. That’s why this billionaire hired multiple wealth managers just to handle donations. That chat changed my perspective on how difficult it can be to give away large amounts of money.
Still, I’d rather them pay fair taxes.
I was about to say, they should just pay taxes, after all this is what government is for.
Yeah, I was very disappointed in Bill Gates for being pro-philanthropy but against higher taxation. That said, Gates and Buffet don’t get the final say. The American people just elected an anti-tax fraudulent billionaire.
But if they donate enough then we will never force them to give up all their excess wealth.
And they like having excess wealth, a lot, like most rich people have hoarding mental disorders.
None of them really want to better society, they just want us to not rip all their skin off and redistribute their wealth so our economies benefit everyone again.
Nah, I don’t like that. That’s bad. Everybody should have to pay a share to fund public available necessities and uplift people as equals. It’s not optional, it being optional demonstrably does not work, and even if it did we shouldn’t rely on faith and goodwill.
Billionaires should be illegal.
They definitely need to pay their fair share of taxes. But even that wouldn’t be enough. People will always demand more be done.
Fuck Warren Buffett. He’s just another scumbag who has soaked up wealth by taking full advantage of neoliberal economics. There are no good billionaires.
The only correct response honestly.
This fucker, and everyone else should not ever have $147 billion to give away, or anywhere close to it.
I’d argue it isn’t his money anyway. These psychos have concocted a system of capitalism that is inherently theft and exploitation. The wealth is dependent on the masses who are kept poor as wage slaves stuck in a perpetual cycle of produce and consume. Which most of us cannot escape.
The masses are the cement and rebar foundation for the billionaires wealth.
Honestly, it ain’t his money to give away. I wish people would realize this.
Why wait? There is functionally no difference between $1b and $147b. He would get to see the fruits of his efforts if he spends it now.
Because if it takes 10 years to donate that much and the market stays at its 10 year average growth they stand to have something like 190b dollars left when they are done donating that 149b.
With that logic he should give it to Jeff Bezos so he can keep growing it after he’s gone.
As long as the promise is on the horizon and they don’t ever pay up then poor idiots will keep making excuses for them to not dump their ill gotten gains back into the system they stole it from!
It’s the same promise gates has made for decades. I am going to donate all of it. And he has donated billions, but taxes are low enough on the rich, and loop holes are big enough that even while they give away money, they still make shit tons more.
Example, Gates left Microsoft in 2008 and just runs his charity, where he has given away billions, like almost 6 billion in 2022 alone. His net worth was 58 billion in 2008, it is now around 107 billion.
He has almost doubled his net worth, while donating more money than anyone can ever spend, annually.
I feel like you are inventing the concept of an endowment from first principles.
What do you mean?
I’m pretty sure his foundations and the Gates stuff both are specifically designed to be left with zero money at the end.
I have no idea how money works at large scale, so I guess I have a question for anybody who knows
Could that much money being distributed cause problems with the “economy”? My naive understanding is that the “economy” is (more or less) money moving around. Could hoarded wealth entering circulation cause any kind of problems?
I know my question is already sort of flawed since hoarded wealth isn’t exactly sitting still, but I don’t know if that makes a difference
Because his true passion in life is turning money into more money. This is what he does, he doesn’t buy yachts, or sports teams, or politicians, he just makes more money. He lives very modestly actually, still lives in his same little house and gets like a mcdonald’s value meal for breakfast before work every day, he’s an interesting guy.
(I’m not absolving him of the moral sins inherent in having and acquiring that kind of wealth, I’m just answering the question)
He’s entered the Rockefeller stage of his life. Build a bunch of community shelters or rebuild America’s railroad network or something useful, Warren.
He should give it to Bernie
Dude could randomly give 147,000 people 1 million dollars but he’s more likely to just give it to charities that his buds or family will benefit from.
Write everyone in the US cheque for ~$400
No shit. What else would he do with it? Cling on to his fortunes while descending into the particular pits of the underworld?
That is Elon’s plan.
Anyway I can email him asking for a couple hundred thousand? Drop in the bucket, he wouldn’t even notice, yet my life would be changed forever.
Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure there will be an uptick in emails of “spokespersons” reaching out to you personally to bring the news you have been personally selected in sharing the wealth.
They just need you to make a small payment of €10k for insurance purposes.
So all those articles saying he sold to be in cash because market crash was coming were completely off
This guy seems like a narcissist. “I haven’t been in the news in a months because of trump, let me do somthing news worthy”
Edit. He’s donating to his own foundation you doughnuts
This take would make more sense if it wasn’t something he does every year.
“donating 1.1 billion to his family’s foundation” he’s literally doing this to avoid paying taxes
You absolute fool
Except this is a good thing, and will encourage others.
