主题： Philanthropy

I came to realize that there was a terrific foundation that was already scaled up—that wouldn’t have to go through the real grind of getting to a megasize like the Buffett Foundation would—and that could productively use my money now…. Over the years I had gotten to know Bill and Melinda Gates well, spent a lot of time with them having fun, and way beyond that, had grown to admire what they were doing with their foundation. I’ve seen them give presentations about its programs, and I’m always amazed at the enthusiasm and passion and energy they’re pouring into their work. They’ve gone at it, you might say, with both head and heart.

He has this view that every human life worldwide is the equivalent of every other human life, and he’s backing it up not only with money, but backing it up with his time. And his wife, Melinda, is backing it up with her time. And they are really going to spend, you know, the last half of their lives or so using … money, talent, energy, imagination, all improving the lives of 6.5 billion people around the world. That’s what I admire the most.

I’m getting two people enormously successful at something, where I’ve had a chance to see what they’ve done, where I know they will keep doing it—where they’ve done it with their own money, so they’re not living in some fantasy world—and where in general I agree with their reasoning. If I’ve found the right vehicle for my goal, there’s no reason to wait. Compare what I’m doing with them to my situation at Berkshire, where I have talented and proven people in charge of our businesses. They do a much better job than I could in running their operations. What can be more logical, in whatever you want done, than finding someone better equipped than you are to do it? Who wouldn’t select Tiger Woods to take his place in a high-stakes golf game?

In philanthropy you’re tackling the very tough problems that have resisted intellect and money in the past. In business you’re looking for something easy to do, maybe just a new improved product that will sell a little bit better than the previous one. So in philanthropy, if you’re doing important things, you have to expect mistakes.

You do not have a market system feedback. You set up a hamburger stand and you are turning out lousy hamburgers, you will know it by the end of the day. In philanthropy, if you are doing something dumb, you will have people encouraging you to do more of the dumb thing. So, it has no market feedback, and that’s a huge issue.

I have the much greater admiration, frankly, for the person who drops $5 or $1 in the collection plate on Sunday where it makes a difference in whether they go take their kids to a movie or whether they go to eat out or something of that sort. They are actually giving up something that has utility to them. I am giving up nothing that has utility to me. I have everything in the world I want that can be bought by money.

My instincts are to go along the idea of encouraging individual philanthropy. But I do not believe in giving away other people’s money, and so Berkshire Hathaway, at the parent-company level, does not make charitable contributions. When I die, all of the money has to be spent within 10 years after the estate has closed, because I do not think that I can pick out some little great-great-grandchild yet to be born, you know, just because he has the right name of Buffett or she has the right name, and they will be the best custodians. I mean, there will be plenty of philanthropists 50 years after I die to take care of the problems of 50 years, but I want the money to get spent promptly and I don’t believe in trying to control things from the grave. I mean, I like to think I can think outside the box, but thinking outside of that particular box?

Andrew carnegie … said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society. In my case, the ability to allocate capital would have had little utility unless I lived in a rich, populous country in which enormous quantities of marketable securities were traded and were sometimes ridiculously mispriced. And fortunately for me, that describes the United States in the second half of the last century.