Can i Get a...

Anthony .:

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

The U.S. Marine Corps version:

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm the rest of his life...

[quote=Anthony .]I read the comments real quick and the one guy who voted no really struck on something important. Everyone loves the idea of giving to charity, but what if these billionaires got together and started a huge business which could employ thousands. Not only would they make more money which they could then give away, but they would give people jobs which would further benefit things. It would also reduce government expenditures which would allow for either lower taxes or more social program (puke).

How about taking 100 billion and starting a green tech revolution/industry. Would give the USA a leadership position in a future industry, would employ so many laid off workers and would help to make the USA energy independent.

How about set up a college fund for low income families to send their kids to college free as long as they study math and science. Lets educate lower income people while increasing our supply of science minded individuals.

How about spending 20 billion on advanced farm equipment, fertilizer and seeds and going to Africa to teach modern farming practices. You would fuel US based businesses that would hire and produce more, you would reduce the amount of aid the USA wastes on these countries and you would lift millions of people out of poverty and starvation.

How about buying birthcontrol and condoms for the BILLIONS of people who have no hope of moving past merely existing and lowering birthrates? Less kids = less mouths = less food needed to be grown.

I could go on and on and on. Long story short, they are pissing money away.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

Naaaa, lets just give it to charities so everyone can feel better.

[quote]

I guess I'm just wondering what makes you think there aren't NGOs that do exactly what you're talking about (ie distributing birth control, farm equipment, etc.) Not all charities simply donate food to hungry people. And really, pissing money away? What about donating to the American Cancer Society? Oh, it's a "charity" so it must be pissing money away.

I think its incredibly naive to look for a free-market solution in place of charitable giving. Does anyone really think the 20bil of farm equipment to Africa is going to be very profitable for an individual company? You can probably find a better investment opportunity elsewhere, so that's where the money will go if we're relying on the market.

You did seem to mention in connection with the farming idea some resounding global economic and social benefits that would make this investment worthwhile despite being unprofitable for the individual organization investing the money. This is exactly what a charity does. So, I guess I'm not sure what you're really suggesting. Because you basically came up with a lot of ideas for charities as an argument against charitable giving (again, I already addressed the fact that capital is better employed elsewhere if profit is the objective.)

The getting together to start a business idea is pretty stupid too. I guess the claim is that they could employ people and make more money to give away. Even though its pretty fucking hard to just start a profitable business with 100B in assets, we'll for one second accept this as a premise. Now, say 10 years later, they have trippled their money which they can now give away. Then someone steps up with a bright idea "Hey, we could keep running the business and make even more money to give away! Yeah!"

Do you see what I'm getting at? Continually holding that money in limbo doesn't help people currently dying of incurable diseases. And there's no real utilitarian calculation that justifies amassing more money because it will make a bigger difference later.

This is to another poster: is charity the reaosn Africa is a shit-hole right now? Or could it be the political situation that keeps people in poverty? Guess we'll mull that one over.

Anthony .:

I am sure there are countless economic principals to mention, but do we really need to complicate shit? Do I really need to have a text book full of utility curves and functions to convince someone that giving a guy a job so he can pay taxes and support himself is 10x better then providing him with welfare and treating him like he is an infant?

In the interest of being a technical asshole: yes, we would need those tools to prove that it's exactly 10x better (that is to say, we would need them to quantify the impact). However, I agree that at the end of the day, the effort needs to make intuitive sense, which I feel a lot of your ideas above do.

The Phantom:

Anthony, great point! One of the reasons why Africa is so damn poor is because of all charitable work. Local farmers there cannot compete with some charities that give away food for free. Many Economists say that we should stop giving goods to Africa for free, and actually teach them how to make/sell goods.

Yah. I can understand why the US government, when donating food to foreign nations, requires it to be shipped on American ships and grown on American farms. However, this is bad for poor nations whose local farmers can't compete with us giving or subsidizing food for a receiver country's constituents.

http://globalpoverty.change.org/blog/view/american_food_aid_saving_live…

(I remember reading this in a more legitimate source like newsweek or Time a few years ago but I didn't feel like spending more time finding an article that is older when this one is just as relevant, though I don't love the source)

Also, to the other comment on American's buying foreign oil:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_…

I post this all the time because Dennis Gartman relentlessly tells us that politicians are perpetuating this myth that somehow we rely exclusively on the ME for oil. Sure, we do get some oil from the ME, but take a look at the list and you can see only 3 of the top 15 are from ME (I know you didn't say ME but I just want to stress it for everyone else). Either way, money we spend on oil is not going into our enemies hands as you put... the only real major enemy of the US on this list is Venezuela, and trust me, they couldn't do shit to us if we stopped buying their oil.