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Keep in mind Ackman has been one of the most vocal voices in support of Isarel and speaking up against antisemitism on college campuses and antisemitism the world in general. His IPO attempt had to be cancelled last week. Watch closely.


@BillAckman
.
@melindagates
apparently does not consider me to be a philanthropist yet the
@PershingSqFdn
(our family’s foundation) and an affiliated DAF have made grants of more than $700m, have foundation assets of ~$1 billion still to give, and I am a signatory of the Giving Pledge. And unlike Melinda, every dollar of philanthropic gifts I have made, came from money I earned, not resources I married into.

All of that said, I don’t believe that philanthropy is the answer to societal problems.
@elonmusk
has done more for the world with his for-profit enterprises than any philanthropist ever.

In my experience, many if not most philanthropic organizations are inefficient and/or ineffective. For-profit organizations are vastly more effective in addressing societal problems than non-profits.

Therefore, in my view, philanthropy should be focused on addressing societal issues for which there is no current for-profit solution.

https://fortune.com/2024/07/29/melinda-french-gate...

the Fortune article,

https://fortune.com/2024/07/29/melinda-french-gate...

All of that said, I don’t believe that philanthropy is the answer to societal problems.
@elonmusk
has done more for the world with his for-profit enterprises than any philanthropist ever.

Pretty sure the people of Africa now alive because of polio vaccines and able to see thanks to the eradication of guinea worms and the helps of Doctors Without Borders and similar efforts funded by philanthropy would disagree. Because Elon Musk has given them? Electric cars? Tunnel boring machines?

There is a place for both. Lots of things the private market doesn’t do - and perhaps can’t do. Rebuilding Europe after World War II is one such, although it was funded by the US in a philanthropic effort to put several countries back on stable economics. But there have been similar purely philanthropic efforts across the world: rebuilding much of New Orleans after Katrina came from philanthropic efforts. “The private market” had nothing to do with it.

The education of Native American children where philanthropy has had an impact better that either government (and surely better than) the private market have accomplished. The Plough Foundation has worked on helping Seniors Age In Place, there is no “private market” effort on that which I am aware of. It is often philanthropy which funds research into rare diseases; “the market” can’t be coaxed to spend money on something that doesn’t return big bucks. Likewise Habitat for Humanity puts the dispossessed in houses the private market ignores them completely.

It’s philanthropy which pays to re-investigate crimes for which people have been wrongly imprisoned. Neither the market nor the government wants anything to do with that. “The market” isn’t championing building resilient cities: that’s the Ford Foundation advocating and producing workable plans. There’s more, there’s so much more, but Ackman would rather ignore the successes in favor of another “I can do it better” screed and another bow to “the market is always right” mantra.

All of that said, I don’t believe that philanthropy is the answer to societal problems.
@elonmusk
has done more for the world with his for-profit enterprises than any philanthropist ever.

In my experience, many if not most philanthropic organizations are inefficient and/or ineffective. For-profit organizations are vastly more effective in addressing societal problems than non-profits.

Therefore, in my view, philanthropy should be focused on addressing societal issues for which there is no current for-profit solution.

Philanthropy requires you succeed at capitalism first. Musk is still in the building the empire stage and may never transition to philanthropist.

That being said, philanthropy exists all around you. The first insulin was invented and given to the world. Didn't last long and capitalism figured out how to charge us $2k a month. So how was capitalism good at solving societies problems there? We've totally botched the medical area with for profit hospitals. Fortunately a good portion of them are charitable - isn't that a form of participatory philanthropy?

So we have for-profit drug companies - where executives set the prices on the drug you may need. For-profit hospitals - where you can be blind sided in an operation by one or more of the attending Doctors not being in network. Finding out that the urgent out of care facility you went to isn't considered to be urgent care by your insurance carrier. Finding out that the authorized hospital overseas is a dilapidated building that needs thorough cleaning and repair - but the Docs seem OK, they just used the wrong size screws for your internal brace.

Not everything should be for profit and the profit should be regulated in some industries.

I still remember checking out the Hardy Boys from the philanthropically donated public library as a kid.

I still assert that the government should be able to partly own some industries like Norway owns Stat oil (Equinor). We don't have to hand over all profit to the elites and only do things that operate at a loss.

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