Here's an interesting 1+1=2.
Warren Buffett recently donated US$37 billion to Bill Gates' charitable foundation. This is on top of the US$31 billion that Bill (yeah, we go way back) already gave before, making a total of US$68 billion.
Warren (I knew him through Bill) has already given most of his fortune (his estimated net worth is US$44 billion). Bill has another estimated US$50 billion to go.
So let's assume Bill will give most of that too and add another US$40 billion of that to the total, and so we have about US$108 billion.
Here's an interesting comparison.
The number of people the World Bank classifies as living in poverty just dipped below 1 billion this year, down by over 250 million since 1990. How do they arrive at the classification? Those that live on less than US$1 a day.
I think you kinda see where I'm going.
So let's say we take Bill and Warren's money and put it in a mix of T-bills, equity, loans and deposits. We take a blended return of about 7.5% and we arrive at returns of US$8.1 billion a year.
Divide that by 365 days and you have approximately 22 million.
So, basically, the charitable donations of 2 people are enough to double the daily income of 22 million people, without even affecting the value of those donations.
.
.
.
.
I dunno, I just thought that was interesting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Two words: Transaction costs (see my comment on firms/state without competition which applies to non-profit organizations too)
If Bill donated US$1 to every person below the poverty line, how much will the person actually get, after transaction costs? My guess? Less than 0.20.
Better to give medicine methinks..although with a secondary market out there, there is never any guarantee
Sorry, I should've been clearer, the post was never about donating to the poor, it was about highlighting the limits to which income inequality can go. That is, none.
Basically, 2 men can (theoretically) take care of the World Bank's poverty alleviation target for a year, from their annuities alone.
Like I said, I just thought it was interesting.
Post a Comment