Melinda Gates Pledges $560 Million For Contraception 451
theodp writes "Melinda Gates has pledged $560 million as part of a campaign to expand access to contraception for women. From the article: 'The funding commitment was unveiled on Wednesday at the London Summit on Family Planning alongside pledges totaling $4.3 billion from the British government and leaders from African nations wrestling with the health and social problems brought on by high rates of unplanned pregnancy.'"
Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
Kidding aside.
She and her husband continue to show the best side of capitalism. For those that assume that wealth necessarily leads to avarice, it's delightful to me to see the Gates Foundation making that case more difficult to prove.
To hear her explain the contraception issue:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/415947/june-27-2012/melinda-gates [colbertnation.com]
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
She and her husband continue to show the best side of capitalism.
Err, it's not capitalism at all. It's charity. Charity is a bandaid over the wounds of capitalism.
Of course it's better to do this than to squander the money, just as it's right to help up a man who keeps falling over. But you're still treating the symptom, not the cause.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Funny)
My TAX money is going towards this. One part of me asks why I have to support this. But the even louder part says, could I really ask as a guy not to fuck because he lives in a poor place with no chance of getting out. Fucking is the only free fun he has. If I have to pay the price of a beer once a year so some people can fuck and not die then I'm really ok with that.
Here have two beers and fuck her one from me.
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Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Funny)
If you're gettng none , you're not doing it right.
Go to bar, chat up each and every girl that strikes your libido. Ask each and every one a few minutes in, if they'd like to have a drink and a movie back at your place. Don't worry about hearing "NO", you're going to, a lot. But that evening, there will be one who thinks it's a good idea and she knows she's gonna get cocked, she just doesn't want to come right out and ask you, women leave it to you. Your job now, is to apply more alcohol till she will do things she wouldn't normally do. Not too much, or they don't participate well.
Don't approach this as though you were looking for a life partner, it's a bar, they are just looking for cock, not to marry a drunk. Quit worrying about being very romantic about it. They are there for sex, not love, just like you.
Can you believe it? They wouldn't let me put this on Wikihow!
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You. Have. To. Ask.
>>Your job now, is to apply more alcohol till she will do things she wouldn't normally do.
Fix: just wait until later in the night. Someone else will pay for those drinks.
Disclaimer: I hated this. It was never what I wanted. I turned it down more times than I accepted.
PS. The good girls ask too... and they're all good girls.
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Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parents
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And the solution to capitalism is?
I keep hearing "OMG capitalism is teh evil!", but I've yet to hear of an alternative that's even half way plausible. Humans are by nature greedy and lazy.
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That's because it's very much like current democracy - it's the worst system except for all the others we've come up with.
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Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
Small scale tribal communities will only scale well after an apocalypse.. And even then, they'll amount to bully-rules, as they always have. Something like the Taliban or the Pentacostals always turns up.
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Errmm...like the ones in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Them? The ones that cannot stop fighting each other over Allah? Now, let's all be Multi-Culti and praise their tribal culture.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
And the solution to capitalism is?
Realizing that capitalism is an economic system, not a religion. It does not cover all of human existence nor all of societies needs. It covers the production and distribution of for-profit goods and services, and that is it.
Art, health care, police, firefighters and other disaster prevention, education, public transport, communications, housing and other basics (energy, water, food, etc.) go beyond what capitalism can provide. This is where the better mix is some parts capitalism, some parts something else - whatever you want to call it.
Unless, of course, you agree that people dying of thirst in the streets because the market has set an optimal price point for water above what they can afford is the kind of world you want to live in. Or that the thieves go free if they pay the police more than you do.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Interesting)
Capitalism would do a better job with education, housing and healthcare if government would stop introducing massive distortions in the market.
The three most dysfunctional sectors of our economy from the standpoint of the consumer are housing, higher education and healthcare. Skyrocketing costs for healthcare and education. Students and mortgage borrowers awash in debt with under-valued assets (homes and useless degrees). Millions unable to access basic medical services. Poor price/quality tradeoffs. This is not because "capitalism has failed", it is because government has decided that their central planners can "manage" these things better than the market. They have failed miserably as all central planning systems do.
Art? Are you F***ing kidding? You're saying that painting, sculpture, theater, music and film would cease to exist without the power of governments? LOL The free market has produced some quite amazing advances in medical technology. If the government would stop its practice of mandates, price controls, cost shifting and barriers to competition, medical services would once again be affordable. Education? Plenty of excellent private schools. If you want the service, pay for it. The free market has been superb with communications. Look at the evolution of cell phone technology. Steadily smaller, faster, cheaper and more capable. Thank $deity government isn't in the cell phone business. Housing? Another government clusterf***. We have an over-abundance of cheap food and I'm confident that we could ensure that people don't die of thirst without having men with guns confiscating our wealth and throwing us in prison.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
Errr...maybe...but at least for housing, capitalism tanked the U.S. and much of the World's economies. Now, they did have some help in local zoning law changes, government sponsored loan buying agencies. However, it was Wall Street that figured out how to securitize packages of loans and sell them out to the rest of the world. They happened to find ready helpers in the loan rating agencies, which are part of private enterprise.
And let's not forget the American People, those paradigms of capitalist virtue who flipped houses, took out the equity of their existing houses, got second mortgages, bought houses they could ill-afford but were too stupid to realize it because it would have required they read the loan agreements they were signing.
There were the private construction companies building McMansions right and left. Private banks all too willing to finance those puffs of capitalist buoyancy. Private real estate agents willing to sell anything to anyone knowing many couldn't possibly afford it.
And there was the wall between the commercial and investment banks that came tumbling down because the bankers promised to be real good and modern banking required there be free private enterprise, well, golly, everywhere.
So let's not get all teary eyed over capitalism and housing.
Oh, and for profit colleges are raping returning servicemen and women blind offering anything to get them to sign on the dotted line. And health care is already privatized. You can tell because if you are unemployed and cannot afford it, you are shit out of luck. That's what capitalism does, it puts a price on everything. And if you cannot afford, you don't get it. Tell that to the fellow who paid his taxes for years until he had no job to pay them with because he got laid off at 50 and no private company will touch him with a ten foot pole.
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Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
The free market has produced some quite amazing advances in medical technology. If the government would stop its practice of mandates, price controls, cost shifting and barriers to competition, medical services would once again be affordable. Education? Plenty of excellent private schools. If you want the service, pay for it. The free market has been superb with communications. Look at the evolution of cell phone technology. Steadily smaller, faster, cheaper and more capable. Thank $deity government isn't in the cell phone business. Housing? Another government clusterf***. We have an over-abundance of cheap food and I'm confident that we could ensure that people don't die of thirst without having men with guns confiscating our wealth and throwing us in prison.
What? The free market has produced very few advances in medical technology. Many of the advances in the basic sciences (including biochemistry and physics) are sponsored by the government. The same goes for drugs and medical equipment. The free market has actually not developed many items on its own, without piggy-backing on projects that were originally or partially government funded. Interestingly, the government also pays a large portion of the costs of training medical residents.
Price controls? There aren't any. I used to work at a very large biotech that sold good but absurdly expensive drugs, because there aren't any price controls that prevented it from doing so. And I actually argue for greater barriers to entry in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. There are too many drugs and devices on the market that don't work, and may do more harm than good. One of the first things we learned about in my CS courses was the Therac-25. Additionally, things like metal-on-metal hip replacements should not have been approved, given their high failure rates and higher tendency of causing metal toxicity.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
Capitalism would do a better job with education, housing and healthcare if government would stop introducing massive distortions in the market.
That's religious dogma, not truth. What evidence we have runs counter to what you claim. The most unregulated health care market (until recently) in the western world was the USA. Every other 1st world country has some kind of public health care. End result: The best, yes, and also the by far most expensive health care in the world.
Education? You really want to go back to times when the general public couldn't afford schooling? You know, before the government stepped in, made it mandatory and picked up the tab? If you check history, you might notice that those weren't exactly the most progressive times.
Art? Are you F***ing kidding? You're saying that painting, sculpture, theater, music and film would cease to exist without the power of governments?
...speaking of which, I see that education has failed you. Nowhere in my original posting did the word "government" even appear.
You seem to be stuck in a world where only two things exist: Capitalism and Government. And you seem to think they are opposed. Please don't wake up and never look outside, you would die from the shock.
Here's a funny thought for you: Capitalism wouldn't exist without a government enforcing it. Because the poor wouldn't respect the food or water prices. They would hit the merchant over the head with sticks and take what they need.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Informative)
I'm confident that we could ensure that people don't die of thirst
I'm sure you're right, just like in Bolivia where the Santa Cruz water supply was privatized by (IIRC) Bechtel. They jacked up the monthly bill for water higher than most of the people living in the slums made in a month, while reducing the already abysmal service, eliminating much of the maintenance staff as a "cost saving" measure, and breaking ground on a bottled water plant that would have sucked up much of the already limited supply. Eventually the local director of the Aguas de Tunari division had to flee the city in fear of his life
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Realizing that capitalism is an economic system, not a religion. It does not cover all of human existence nor all of societies needs. It covers the production and distribution of for-profit goods and services, and that is it.
Of course, you'd think it was just a matter of understanding or learning. We ignore here that capitalism backed by a moderately regulated market is infrastructure (the missing ingredient in your pablum) that simply works. It's not religion just a few centuries of historical evidence. It's also worth keeping in mind that a lot of the problems that are attributed to capitalism such as "greed" or economic bubbles are problems with any system that has sentient beings of limited knowledge with competing interest
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
exactly
capitalism is a beast of burden. yolk it and you can plough your land and do great things. let it loose and it runs roughshod over your farm, breaking everything
you don't worship capitalism, you put it to work: you siphon off the excess capital and do some good with it. what's the alternative? richie rich getting another mansion?
not that there shouldn't be rich people. but they are rich because of the society they are in. so that society needs to be taken care of
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True, but it only takes a few greedy people to ruin a system based on generosity. If you want a secure system, you have to assume that nobody can be trusted. Similarly, if you want a stable society, you have to assume that most people are greedy.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Funny)
Charity is a bandaid over the wounds of capitalism.
The second top-quality quote to originate from an anonymous Slashdotter. Well done AC, you might have gone down in history if you'd posted with an account.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
Except that the birth control issue in Africa has nothing to do with capitalism, which kinda negates the point he was trying to make.... That's not capitalism at all, it's religious stupidity coupled with a culture that's set up to keep women down.
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Yes, and Planned Parenthood and other such organizations do in fact have to deal with some justifiable hard feelings over some of the early excesses - involuntary, uninformed sterilization and the like. There is a very real problem though - we have the poorest of the poor breeding like rabbits and being unable to provide adequate care for all their children. Sure, we could theoretically send all the world's excess food to them, but that wouldn't actually solve the problem - remove the environmental constr
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Funny)
I know, it's crazy. The Gates's ability to avoid corruption, with that much power, is a skill I am envious of.
It's like putting a man on the moon. Our kids are going to think it's all fake.
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I know, it's crazy. The Gates's ability to avoid corruption, with that much power, is a skill I am envious of.
Hey, is that you David Cameron?
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She and her husband continue to show the best side of capitalism.
Hmm, I tend to think capitalism is at it's best at a small scale where there are minimal power imbalances (asymmetry in information, wealth, etc.) - for example, a regular customer at a small family restaurant: in that case, capitalism essentially provides both a framework and an incentive for both parties to be nice to each other.
On the other hand, I'm not quite sure what charity has to do with capitalism - unless the idea is that pure capitalism inevitably results in massive wealth inequality (i.e. pover
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Hey - don't be an AC! I don't waste mod points on ACs, and you deserve a +1.
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Not all billionaires are such [rollingstone.com] decent people. [kochbrothersexposed.com]
Though, to be honest, if had that kind of dough I'm not sure I wouldn't spend it all on strip clubs and blow and $1300 limited edition video games [bornrich.com].
But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run around poisoning small towns for fun and profit.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Informative)
Here's an article not related to contraception, but related to Gates foundation. It would be insightful read, since no one bothers anymore to research any topic by himself, before he forms an opinion..
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html [edweek.org]
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not just that the Gates Foundation partners with unsavory donors, it's that the Gates Foundations own donations come with strings attached that benefit those donors, or lobbies governments to benefit those donors.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
What marketing does Bill and Melinda Gates need? It's not like they're marketing for Microsoft - they're giving away their own money to help the world. Could you be any more selfish and bitter? What do you do for the good of the world?
And if you think that the only way to do good for the world is with money(seems there are entire cultures based on this - money is your god idea), then no wonder this planet's becoming a shit hole.
What happened to just being good to each other, self sacrifice.. about actually "giving" and caring for people ? Maybe the guy you said this to is doing exactly that, but I guess that doesn't count in your eyes, yes ?
There are many ways in which you can do good.
Don't fall for strict left/right, good/bad, good guys/bad guys philosophy of thinking. Everything matters. The only difference between us is that some people may do more to help, while other less, but that doesn't mean anything. We're collectively evolving and we're in a same boat, each every one of us.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that $560 million can do a lot more for the world than if I volunteered at a soup kitchen. Sure I might make that homeless guys day but they can improve exponentially more lives than I can with that money. And I believe that until resource/energy sarcity is a thing of the past large somes of money put to good use in the right places will make a bigger impact on the world than what an individual can. You might be willing to donate your time and work hard but you have to pay for supplies. Your points are valid but don't try to take away from all the good the Gates do just because they are doing it with money.
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What happened to just being good to each other, self sacrifice.. about actually "giving" and caring for people
The American "Christian" Right abolished all that. Didn't you hear? It's all about judging others now.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong assumption there, buddy. Turns out that poor people give more to charity than rich people [deseretnews.com].
The Gates are a positive example, among the rich. Relatively speaking, they aren't that much more charitable than the 99%. So your question is addressed at the wrong audience.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong assumption there, buddy. Turns out that poor people give more to charity than rich people [deseretnews.com].
The Gates are a positive example, among the rich. Relatively speaking, they aren't that much more charitable than the 99%. So your question is addressed at the wrong audience.
That's not true, and the article you link makes it clear that it's not true: the poor give a greater proportion of their wealth to charity, which is different to giving more to charity.
It's also important to consider who receives the money. The Economist recently had an article analysing charitable giving in America, and found that the majority of charitable giving among non-wealthy people was to religious institutions that they personally attended. I'm loath to suggest that there are different "classes" of charitable giving, but I would also be hesitant to say that it's more generous to give more money but to things more closely connected to yourself.
As for your relative generosity point, that's surely just bonkers: your link claims that the "99%" give 4% of their income; Gates has given away around 50% of his net worth since 2007, and (according to Wikipedia) has pledged to eventually give away 95%. I don't see how you can look at those figures and arrive at the conclusion that he's not bee much more charitable than the ordinary person.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Interesting)
It all depends on how you skin the cat.
Tell you what, give me 100 times more money than I could ever spend in my lifetime even if I bathed in champagne each morning, paid my kitchen maid escort fees and never used the same helicopter twice - and I wouldn't even flinch when you ask me to part with half of it.
Now give me an average family that barely makes ends meet and has been saving for a new car for two years, and tell me again that they are not charitable if they give as much as a buck.
Who gave more in absolute terms? The rich guy.
Who gave more in relative wealth? The rich guy.
Who actually felt the loss?
Look, let's get away from Gates, who quite frankly is an asshole who abuses even his Foundation to drive out competition and control markets, and let me say that I do think rich people giving to charity is a good thing.
I just don't think that it deserves headlines when many people sacrifice more to give to others and don't get any mention in the news.
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What do you do for the good of the world?
I try to contribute by running Folding@Home.
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If someone abuses you for more than a decade, then gets all sweet and loving... it is not time to forgive and cherish them.
captcha: enabler
Actually, it is. Forgiveness is exactly what good people do and it's taught by bible and other ancient guidelines. Likewise, you should give people second changes and even more. In real life this can be hard but it's something you should try to do.
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Not to mention forgiveness is more for you than those you forgive.
When we forgive, our bodies release tension that can cause health problems and the mental benefits abound.
It really is a better choice than murder, which does the same thing, but carries it's own caveats.
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Yes, forgiveness is taught by the Bible along with many, many other concepts of how to proceed with life.Study the bits in red if you have trouble finding it.
He wasn't summing the Bible up, he was pointing out an inclusion. God is capitalized, I don't know where you were going with the underscores.
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> Yes, forgiveness is taught by the Bible along with many
The gist of the bible is "God cant forgive, therefore Jesus had to die, therefore we invented Christianity to thank Jesus for getting voluntarily punished instead of us."
Whan the theological central pillar of the whole religion is based on non-forgiveness, it doesnt matter that forgiving is mentioned as a side note on page 843.
Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score:5, Insightful)
Take the tinfoil off.
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So you're positing that the publicity from this will result in more than $560 million for Bil and Melinda?
After all, they are just doing this for their own gain right? If it doesn't generate the "marketing" to earn them at leasdt half a billion then it's not really "the best side' of marketing is it?
Oh grow up (Score:3)
Not all beauty is so immediately apparent, and in fact I've come to believe that superficial beauty tends to actively interfere with the more durable kinds (not always, but often). Even on the purely physical level models tend to be more sexually titillating than beautiful.
Plus the criteria for "cohort" and "mother of my children" are both quite a bit more demanding than for "playmate", especially when you're filthy rich and "won't off me in my sleep and run off with my fortune and the pool boy" is a real
Catholic != papist (Score:4, Interesting)
The greatest theologian of the Catholic Church, Hans Kung, is barred from teaching doctrine by the same Ratzinger. In effect, Catholic thought has been hijacked by a relatively small clique of backward authority figures. You could say the same thing about the British Conservative Party and the Church of England. Comment on the USA would be superfluous, as HuffPost does a rather thorough job. Eventually, Popes die.
The point is that Melinda Gates is more typical of Catholics than is the Pope, and Hans Kung articulates the beliefs of educated Catholics far better than Ratzinger's entire hierarchy. It is the Pope that needs to go into unearned retirement.
And, for information, I'm a kind of atheist. I just think that clear thinking about what goes on in religions is much better than simple name calling.
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Dear AC: (Score:2)
Re:Catholic = Papist, because Jesus made Peter hei (Score:4, Insightful)
... very clearly ordered mankind in the Genesis to multiply and populate all the lands.
We've done that. He didn't say "multiply and over-populate all the lands". Can we please put the "contraception is evil" one to rest?
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The Catholic Church is strictly organized as Lord Jesus modeled it on the roman imperial military.
Jesus didn't model it on the Roman imperial military. Neither did Peter. Paul might have, since he's the one who actually created the Catholic Church. But if so, it's not a useful structure in today's world.
Not even Paul... (Score:3)
The Roman Catholic Church (as distinct from the early Church) came into being because of the process of incorporation by which the Roman Empire "adopted" foreign religions when it seemed expedient
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The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility was only introduced in the First Vatican Council, a.k.a. Vatican I, just before the start of the 20th Century. Prior to that the pope was only a man, although a very powerful one. Prior to that there frequently were slime like the Borgia popes in charge, and most sane people would resist the notion that they were infallible mouthpieces of god.
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If you have bothered to read any of the articles about her decision you will see that she addresses that issue. She decided that the church is wrong on that point. You can't complain about people blindly following a religious leader and then also complain when they decide the religous leader is wrong. Disagreeing about specific implementations of policy does not exclude you from the church.
Its kind of like how just because Obama says the health care law isn't a tax and is a good idea, a lot of Americans
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Sounds like you need some medical attention if you think a company producing a bunch of ones and zeros is equivalent to any of that.
Don't play dumb. He's saying they are equivalent in the "stealing a lot and then giving a little back" and if you don't want to address that argument you have the option of not replying..
The majority of the world will continue to rightly look at Bill Gates as a successful businessman doing charity work with his (for the most part) deserved riches.
We agree in that the majority of the world believes that. We disagree in the part about the deserved riches.
Next time, you could just reduce your argument to "He's not robbing because he deserves the riches he has for these reasons: ..."
Pretty cool (Score:2)
Gotta hand it to her, that's pretty cool.
Will she start with America? (Score:3, Insightful)
... breaking down the religious monopoly on this discussion? Abstinence has been shown to not work, yet it plays to the religious agenda
Re:False (Score:5, Funny)
Re:False (Score:4, Funny)
You forget our lord and saviour....
That was just a sampling error.
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You forget our lord and saviour....
Bob Dobbs Jr?
Or you talking about the Zombie Xian dude, Jesus? Too many shows/movies with zombies these days, he needs another schtick.
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There is no stopping the physical and psychological needs of horny teenagers. They are going to do it with or with out a condom. wouldn't you rather give them the option??
Philanthropy (Score:5, Insightful)
Many may well consider such acts of philanthropy completely altruistic. Whether you agree with the cause or not, only the most cynical of people would view it as 'marketing' or 'self promotion', and even if it actually is that; so what? The people who will benefit from it wont care - it doesn't matter what the motivation for doing it is, the end result is what is important.
Personally, I think the motivation is truly altruistic and comes from a genuine desire to do good in the world. The point I would make is; anyone 'richer than God' is going to acquire the same philosophy. Why are mega rich people altruistic? Because they can be. When every conceivable want and desire is met, what is left but to be generous to your fellow man?
I for one would welcome the opportunity to do exactly that myself. If only I had some software I could sell to IBM.
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Many may well consider such acts of philanthropy completely altruistic. Whether you agree with the cause or not, only the most cynical of people would view it as 'marketing' or 'self promotion'...
...or simply a very wise business decision as a tax shelter. Am I cynical, or am I simply recognizing the most obvious benefit of philanthropy?
Regardless, your latter point stands. People will benefit from this. Many, many people, and that is ultimately what counts.
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If you are right about the tax shelter, though, part of the Gates charity bill will be footed by you because those missing taxes have to come from somewhere. Guess who that's going to be.
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Would we celebrate bank robbers, drug dealers and fraudsters if they were to spend a little of their money on charity? No we wouldn't because that money was gained as the result of illegal and immoral actions.
While Gates was running Microsoft it was found guilty of abusing its desktop monopoly to take out competition in other markets. Arguably their dominant and stagnant position has set back the computing industry many years. Signif
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> it doesn't matter what the motivation for doing it is, the end result is what is important.
For someone who doesn't believe that the motivation matters, you have a very strong opinion on the topic
> When every conceivable want and desire is met, what is left but to be generous to your fellow man?
I seriously doubt that the wealthy are free from want and desire. Do you have any evidence to support this unusual idea?
It seems more likely to me that this is an example of people pursuing other common desire
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So your point was?
My point was; I would like to be rich enough to give away $500M too.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What would YOU do? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, if you were in the Gate's position, how would YOU spend your money for the common good?
Give it back to the people I stole it from through monopoly rent and hope that at least some of the additional damage I've done to the economy can still be undone.
Do Economy 101 again and listen carefully on the part about monopolies.
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Re:What would YOU do? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Too late (Score:2)
About 21,000 days too late, by my reckoning.
:-O (Score:2)
See, it's this sort of thing that makes me wonder if Microsoft was worth it after all.
This is the only thing that can save Africa (Score:5, Interesting)
While many say that there are great famines in Africa, they still have the fastest growing population among the continents. The biggest problem of Africa is overpopulation.
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I've read that overpopulation actually drives some of the political instability.
Agricultural land was something handed down via family and tribe, with excess population the land became too small to subdivide and landless children went to the cities, where they occupy shantytowns, get involved in crime and become recruits for militias and various revolutionary movements, contributing to to more political instability.
Whenever I advance this idea I'm always told that population will auto-suppress with an incre
The conversation (Score:5, Funny)
Bill: "But, Honey, we already have three kids and we can afford as many more as we'd like."
Melinda: "It's the masses. They're clogging up the roads."
Bill: "But, we have helicopters."
Melinda: "They're breeding like locusts. Soon, there will be nothing left of the planet."
Bill: "Then, we'll have it all to ourselves."
Melinda: "No one will be left to by Microsoft products."
Bill: "Here's 590 Million."
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Here's a secret: there is no God and you have no soul. There is no 'spark of life'. Life doesn't begin at conception. It began billions of years ago and is a continuous process. What makes us value our humanity is our sentience. Fetuses are not sentient. They are a piece of flesh until they gain sentience, at which time our laws consider them to be made of magic meat (sentient matter).
Science will soon allow humans to be created artificially by synthesizing DNA and proteins, cloning processes, etc. There w
Re:I hate her now (Score:4, Insightful)
I know, it's very difficult to understand the difference, but trust me, there is one...
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> There is a big difference between wanking in the toilet n aborting a baby.
But we arent even talking about a "baby" because in the early weeks of pregnancy, there is no baby. There is a big difference between a bunch of cells that have the potential to grow into a baby and an already grown up baby.
I know that it is hard to draw an arbitrary line, but a line has to be drawn _somewhere_, since pretending that a single fertilized egg is the same as a living, breathing, feeling human baby is ridiculous.
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I repeat: If you don't have arms and legs and you are in a coma, you continue being a human
That's right. You "CONTINUE" being human, if you ever were one.
If you don't have arms nor legs and you're in a coma, but you alse were never born, you're not a human.
Exactly the same as if you have no arms legs no consciousness and are a story character.
Being born is really kind of a big point in the "unBORN" argument, you know?
Re:She is not a good person after all. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:She is not a good person after all. (Score:4, Insightful)
Building schools so the worlds poor can learn to spell better than your average Anonymous Coward on slashdot is certainly a good example of charity. Giving food less so, except in exceptional circumstances like immediately after a natural (or man-made) disaster, as it is extremely difficult for local farmers to compete with free, so that type of charity just makes poverty worse in the long term. Distributing contraception is better overall for an impoverished community than distributing food.
Re:She is not a good person after all. (Score:5, Insightful)
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There are Jews in the world.
There are Buddhists.
There are Hindus and Mormons, and then
There are those that follow Mohammed, but
I've never been one of them.
I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is:
They'll take you as soon as you're warm.
You don't have to be a six-footer.
You don't have to have a great brain.
You don't have to have any clothes on. You're
A Catholic the moment Dad came,
Because
Every sperm is sacred [youtube.com].
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is w
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>Her solution for the problems of the world: kill humans. It's terrible, because there is people asking job and food, and she worry about kill humans before they have rights.
Every sperm is sacred, right mate?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8 [youtube.com]
--
BMO
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Her solution for the problems of the world: kill humans. It's terrible
Actually, it's only scaled badly. A lot of the problems of the world would disappear if we killed about half the population. But that's not a very popular position to take, because nobody wants to be in that half.
But one thing this world does not need is more humans. As you must be one of those religious nutjobs for the position you hold, maybe you can go back and ask your $deity if the "go forth and multiply" sentence was maybe cut short because he can not possibly have intended unlimited growth. Being an
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The church was morally bankrupt centuries ago. Just the latest incarnation (pun intended) is better highlighted thanks to world news coverage
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Why is that notable exactly?
Bill Gates and Melinda Gates aren't joined at the hip! Or are you telling me that she's not allowed to do something with the money that's legitimately hers, because she's a woman?
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