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A comment on Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuckerberg’s are really bad. Parent comment

Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by Afforess on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:13PM (#10670786)
No, it really doesn't. Here is the meat of it:

> Krämer: In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state. In the end the billionaires are indulging in hobbies that might be in the common good, but are very personal.

Literally, that is all the article has in terms of direct quotes and support. The rest of the article is a discussion and re-hash of other notable charities and comparison of charitable contributions per country, which is a side-tangent.

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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by Retric on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:20PM (#10670858)
"The pair do not have a sterling track record when it comes to effective charity. One of their previous efforts, a high-profile $100 million donation to fix the schools in Newark, N.J., has been widely criticized as a failure."

Asking for a quote misses the point. Look into it yourself and the first link is Where Zuckerberg's $100 million gift went wrong http://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/23/where-zuckerbergs-100-million...

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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by knughit on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:32PM (#10670988)
Note that the $100m was a gift to the government, overseen by thr governor of NJ, so it is hard to say that was a failure of private philanthropy vs government.
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by Chathamization on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:53PM (#10671175)
It wasn't simply a gift, Zuckerberg directed it towards the reforms he thought were fit. According to Business Insider:

>Zuckerberg envisioned the teacher contract reform to be a centerpiece of the reform and contributed $50 million — half of his total donation — to go to working on that cause.

So he decided to throw $50 million at teacher contract reform around the same time that, according to the CNBC article, "the state cutting $56 million in school aid."

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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by marknutter on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:27PM (#10670937)
Government efforts never fail, on the other hand.
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by HiLo on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:15PM (#10670807)
What are you talking about? It has much more than that?
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by Afforess on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:19PM (#10670847)
Pretty sure it doesn't. Feel free to provide quotes / evidence if you disagree.
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by HiLo on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:24PM (#10670900)
Does that discussion of his $100 million donation simply not count in your book? Did it not show up in your browser?
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by Afforess on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:27PM (#10670936)
It's not relevant because their current pledge is significantly different in how it is managed (previous was a 503c charitable contribution, current is an LLC-based corporation that will have stricter control over allocation of funds).
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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by HiLo on Thursday December 03, 2015 @01:00PM (#10671246)
The legal structure has nothing to do with the principal here, stop obfuscating the argument.
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