Will Warren Buffett's Generosity Make A Difference?

Posted by John Carney, Jun 30, 2006, 3:09pm

buffett.jpgProbably not.


It is an open question whether the philanthropic and nonprofit institutions of today have truly mastered this alchemy. More and more money is donated to charity every year, yet America's schools continue to fail, poverty continues to rise, and our environment seems ever more precarious. We would like to think that our contributions make a difference - and large contributions make a large difference - but there is surprisingly little evidence that this is so.


Don't Confuse Generosity With Impact on Society
 [The Chronicle of Philanthropy]

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Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 3:42PM

I've always assumed spending towards evil outstrips philantrophy and the gap grows.

Posted by Skeptic, Jun 30, 2006 5:11PM

"poverty continues to rise"

This statement completely begs the question. By what standard is poverty rising? Where? I would assert that even the poor in America are much better off then the poorest in America were say 50 or 100 years ago. Globaklly, literally hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty in the last 25 years alone (just to give one example). I'm not saying nore cannot be done, I just think this claim is shaky, at best.

For a publication about people BEING charitiable, the entire tone of this piece seems strange. After reading it the logical response would seem to be "then why bother giving at all?" Is that really what he is after?

Posted by Skeptic, Jun 30, 2006 5:12PM

"poverty continues to rise"

This statement completely begs the question. By what standard is poverty rising? Where? I would assert that even the poor in America are much better off then the poorest in America were say 50 or 100 years ago. Globaklly, literally hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty in the last 25 years alone (just to give one example). I'm not saying nore cannot be done, I just think this claim is shaky, at best.

For a publication about people BEING charitiable, the entire tone of this piece seems strange. After reading it the logical response would seem to be "then why bother giving at all?" Is that really what he is after?

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 9:34PM

This question is really a deep.
Will Warren Buffett's Generosity Make A Difference?
What are billions in front of trillions.
Whoah!
Deep man, deep!
I am going to put some grateful dead and think about that.
Great man.
Great question.
Whoah!
Cool dude, cool!

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 9:56PM

Yeah man!
This is really the question.
Deep man, deep!
And I have another question.
How long will this blog keep comments unmoderated.
I mean this stuff is so good, people will want to post comments ad infinitum.
Although this might look like a blow to the freedom of speech, I really think that they will have pretty soon to moderate comments.
Just whoah!
Top man, top!

Will Warren Buffett's Generosity Make A Difference?
Whoah!

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 9:59PM

I am going to take that deep issue with me for the week end!

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 10:09PM

"whether the philanthropic and nonprofit institutions of today have truly mastered this alchemy."

pheeeew!

That is even deeper!

The philantropic institutions
The non profit institutions.

You mean charity?

"have truly mastered this alchemy".
You mean "gets to the needy"?

Does charity reaches the poor?
Is that what you mean?

Well no my boy; because in america, charity is a tax loophole; not a genuine gesture.

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 10:30PM

This Carney rocks!

He puts a finger right on the issue.
Is america just hypocrite?
I mean, this country gives lessons of democracy to the world but in its backyard there is much cleaning to do.
Let's take the french for instance.
Why them?
Just like that!
We have been giving them lessons lately on how to integrate their minorities. Didn't we?
You know, after the riots they had in Paris and its suburb.
Well, bummer!, millions of hispanic just went on the street a short time after that. Burning flags and all that crappy anti-american stuff.
We send troops on the border of Mexico. We raid these illegal immigrants, we, we, we...
Sounds like that phoney charity to me!
We should better clean our backyard before we go teach the rest of the world how to behave!
No?

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 10:30PM

This Carney rocks!

He puts a finger right on the issue.
Is america just hypocrite?
I mean, this country gives lessons of democracy to the world but in its backyard there is much cleaning to do.
Let's take the french for instance.
Why them?
Just like that!
Pure coincidence!
We have been giving them lessons lately on how to integrate their minorities. Didn't we?
You know, after the riots they had in Paris and its suburb.
Well, bummer!, millions of hispanic just went on the street a short time after that. Burning flags and all that crappy anti-american stuff.
We send troops on the border of Mexico. We raid these illegal immigrants, we, we, we...
Sounds like that phoney charity to me!
We should better clean our backyard before we go teach the rest of the world how to behave!
No?

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 10:33PM

Yep!

Posted by Ernesto, Jun 30, 2006 10:34PM

Yep!

Posted by Alonzo, Jun 30, 2006 10:35PM

Yepe!

Posted by Diego, Jun 30, 2006 10:36PM

Si!

Posted by Lamont, Jun 30, 2006 10:38PM

Yo!

Posted by Little feet, Jun 30, 2006 10:39PM

Ugh!

Posted by Little feet, Jun 30, 2006 10:41PM

Can I get my land back?

Posted by Will Simmons IV, Jun 30, 2006 10:43PM

Shut up monkey!

Posted by William Joseph Simmons, Jun 30, 2006 10:48PM

If you say one more word, we send you to the french.
You will see how they treat their immigrants!

Posted by , Jun 30, 2006 11:05PM

Hey listen, listen Will.
Look at this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/nyregion/01kerik.html?ex=1309406400&en=194f805f22668af4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Another french named judge I presume.
The faggot is anti-american.
Read well, the poor guy had an american flag pin on his vest.
Can't be rotten, no?
This smell like french poo to me.
Anti-democratic!
Oh gee!
Why does it sound so dirty?

Posted by L Kent, Jul 03, 2007 3:18PM

The schools are not designed or intended to create brains from every student.

Currently in high school, if you are not in the honors classes, you get the CliffNote version of high school.

Honors Biology is dissecting, standard Biology does not. Instead they share a few textbooks.

Honors English is acting out the part to Scarlett Letter, standard English watches the movie.

We expect very little from "standard" classes because someone one day decided they 'couldn't do it anyway', so why bother.

Bullshit. Everyone is capable of everything, but we are busy keeping certain classes down in this country because we still need people to mow our lawns, cook and serve our food, wash the dishes, aid the nurses, answer the phone, and stand at the register.

I have come to believe that after 4 years of watching my daughter in high school, that it is intentionally designed to retard the ones who by accident or through low self-esteem , family financial distress or ignorance, or any of the other small ticks in life that they check the wrong box... No college expected.

Thereby, they end up doomed for a long time to come, or even a lifetime of small menial jobs.

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