tartbrain wrote:
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "anatol_zinc" <anatol_z...@...> wrote:
>
>> Say a billionare gives one million, that's 0.1%
>>
>> Say, average person who makes $50,000 gives $500, that's 1.0%
>>
>
> Well to be fair, you can't mix net worth and annual income. You gotta use one
> or the other. A billionaire probably isn't working at a normal f8-5 job, but
> living on passive income. Whats a realistic, after tax, inflation and risk
> adjusted return, averaged over 20-30 years (some up years, some down). Maybe
> 2% net real return on their investments. So thats 20 million a year. A
> million donation would be 5% of annual income. Far more than our $500, 1%
> donating friend.
>
> Another angle on your analysis is that a hidden premise appears to be that it
> hurts more for a person of modest means to give a dollar, or x% of income,
> than a richer person. On what basis? If someone has struggled hard all of
> their life doing stuff they hated, in order to to make a fortune, money is
> clearly important to them. Giving money away, or losing it, may hurt far more
> than someone who loves their job and their paycheck is sort of an
> afterthought. They would work for fee if they could swing it. That person's
> gifts may not hurt much at all. might be a joy (like the recent donations
> here -- were people wrathing in pain when giving?)
Many millionaires and billionaires did not work hard for their money.
Most were in the right place at the right time. Bill Gates is an
example of this as were many other tech millionaires and billionaires.
Harvard once did a study and determined that "luck" (or what we call
karma) had a lot to do with it.
