Stephen Colbert‘s comment on Warren Buffett’s decision to donate $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation qualifies as the line of the week:
“Warren Buffet is so rich, he just hired Bill Gates to spend his money for him.”
By the way, Larry Ribstein has an interesting perspective on the Buffett donation in relation to the growing effort of certain shareholders to pursue social causes through their corporate ownership.
Seems to me the best way to use huge amounts of capital to help the most people overall is to invest it in productive enterprises. Don’t high returns indicate the investment is serving people’s needs?
Yes, although the type of investments that the Gates Foundation will be making often will not have a financial return that would justify the same investment by a profit-motivated business entity.