On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Ron Kean wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Aug 1999 09:25:35 -0700 (PDT) Terry Donaghe
> <tdonaghe@yahoo.com> writes:
>
> > The only way to be wealthy and not help other people is to be a
> > miser and spend no money at all.
>
> A person who is wealthy and spends no money has to keep the money or
> wealth somewhere. If he keeps it in a bank account or other investment,
> it is lent out or otherwise invested, presumably for productive purposes.
Its even worse in some cases. Consider Bill & Melinda Gates. All that Microsoft stock sitting in their accounts, now you wonder what would happen if they decided to sell all that stock? Microsoft stock would plunge... They are making people *rich* by holding onto that stock. If you don't have any Microsoft stock, you're jealous of those who do, but if you do have some Microsoft stock, you are happy to see them hold the stock getting richer & richer!
You have to wonder if the reason they are moving rapidly to create the largest charitable organization in the world is because they see the writing on the wall for Microsoft. Between Open Source and the government can it have much time left? Better to sell now and give yourself a job administering the largest charity in the world than attempt to manage a company that past its prime... The question is, does the market see it coming or are they going to buy all that stock just before Microsoft does what Oracle, Sun, Novell and IBM have all done one or more times?
Is Bill Gates more attached to being the president of Microsoft or simply being the president of the biggest "something"?
>
Robert
> And if he just keeps the money in a vault, the bank which issued that
> money in effect gets an interest-free loan, and does the same thing, that
> is, invest the money.
>
Ok, so my $$$ are issued by the Federal Reserve. I don't think
the FR is getting an "interest-free-loan" from me because they
have a licence to print money. Your statement sounds interesting
but I have a feeling one of us is missing something fundamental.