[crazygringo]

I think your key point is this:

> Assuming Gates Foundation is million times better than burning money assumes that Gates is million times better allocating resources than "non-Gates" would be. I'm sure Gates isn't a million times better at this. I'm not sure at all he's even better than "non-Gates".

But I think it's actually pretty clear that it is a million times better. I think it's extremely clear that saving somebody's life, who would otherwise have been killed by malaria, is a million times better than somebody eating a nicer meal at a restaurant, or buying a nicer chair, or whatever.

Yes, governments could be funding more malaria aid but they haven't been. The point is that the Gates foundation identifies areas where there hasn't been enough help and goes and provides that.

I honestly am pretty blown away by your assertion that you're not even sure whether the Gates Foundation does any good at all. Your logic seems to question whether charities do anything at all and whether they should even exist, and I don't think you're going to find a lot of people on your side there.

[jampekka]

> But I think it's actually pretty clear that it is a million times better. I think it's extremely clear that saving somebody's life, who would otherwise have been killed by malaria, is a million times better than somebody eating a nicer meal at a restaurant, or buying a nicer chair, or whatever.

I agree that society and resource allocation should be structured towards such that so much of it doesn't go to this kind of pointless crap. Heavily progressive taxation for all income and international redistribution would be a good start. But people seem to care more about their chairs than poor people suffering.

> I honestly am pretty blown away by your assertion that you're not even sure whether the Gates Foundation does any good at all. Your logic seems to question whether charities do anything at all and whether they should even exist, and I don't think you're going to find a lot of people on your side there.

Gates Foundation probably does some good. But so do e.g. UNICEF, WHO, public universities etc.

In general I find that, at least large scale, charity is a clear sign of a failed economic system. And promoting more charity tends to make the systemic problems worse.

I may be in the minority, but I'm definitely not alone in this. Philantrophy is oligarchy.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/bill-gates-philant...

https://jacobin.com/2015/08/peter-singer-charity-effective-a...