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The Giving Pledge

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A: “The Giving Pledge.” 1. Explain what “The Giving Pledge” is, and give an outline of the different attitudes presented in text 2 and 3. * “The Giving Pledge” is a campaign made by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to encourage the wealthiest people in the United States to make a commitment to give most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. It has it focus on billionaires. * In text 2 ”my Philanthropic Pledge” Buffet talks about his own commitment to “The Giving Pledge” he has decided to give all of his Berkshire Hathaway share to philanthropic foundations. His first pledge is to donate 99% of his own wealth to philanthropy. Buffet is assured that he won’t have to give up any personal pleasures by donating the 99 % of his wealth. Buffet wants to distribute about 4% of the shares he retain, and he claims that his Berkshire shares will only be used for philanthropic purposes ”Nothing will go to endowments; I want the money spent on current needs.”(p.4 l.26). Buffet also point out that he is willing to donate some of his wealth to charity as long as it doesn’t influence his lifestyle or personal needs. ”Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs.” (p.5 l.50) * In text 3 ”The rich want a better world? Try paying fair wages and tax” written by Peter Wilby we get a different point of view of how the rich can save the world from poverty, he points out that even though the 40 US billionaires including Warren Buffet who has agreed to donate half their fortunes to charity it’s not going to make an impact on their life’s, they will still maintain rich and will probably receive more money in future because donating to charity is a good marketing for your business, and they don’t have to pay taxes. Wilby also mentions that the billionaires will remain having huge power and get to decide the good causes. ” If the rich

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