Bill Gates on wealth and children

    by Tufail: Finance

    Bill Gates argues that leaving your entire fortune to your children does them no favors. "It's pretty insane this is a world where somebody can have over $100,000,000,000," he said. "You don't want to just give that to children and create some dynasty. That's not even a favor to them." You can hear more from the interview at the link below. #Finance

    Transcript (en)

    Well, it's pretty insane. This is a world where somebody can have over $100 billion. I mean, that, you know, what is that? And it's not, you know, you don't want to just give that to children and create some dynasty. That's not even a favor to them. You want to give that back. So these are unprecedented fortunes. And if you're a great innovator and you know how to gather scientists together and think about problems, then there are some government is risk averse and particularly poor countries don't have that capacity to think about eradicating malaria or solving malnutrition. There is something that philanthropy can have these outsized results in terms of lives saved, almost like a great startup does on the side of innovation So getting those minds to turn those capacities to equity to the poorest both inside the US and outside the US you know I feel that you know we got the golden rule we're supposed to care about people. There are times when it feels like sympathy for poor people outside the country is lower today than it's been, but I know that'll come back around because of the The moral logic there, I think, I believe is very, very strong. And I found it so fulfilling. And I created a group called Giving Pledge of people who've committed to give the majority of their wealth away. And we learn from each other. Hopefully, we inspire each other. and hopefully we change the societal expectations that if you have even a modest fortune, most of it should combine with your talents and make the world a bit more of a fair place.