The record-breaking donation came from a 93-year-old former professor, who is the widow of a wealthy investor.

The record-breaking donation came from a 93-year-old former professor, who is the widow of a wealthy investor.

  •  fubarx   ( @fubarx@lemmy.ml ) 
    5•8 months ago

    At $60K tuition x 500 students = $30M / yr. Simple interest on $1B at 3% per year over 20 years = $30M / yr.

    They can pay for 500 medical students, practically forever, without touching the principal.

    According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein_College_of_Medicine, in 2021, they matriculated 183 students (out of 9773 applicants). That means they can double the number of ‘free tuition’ students and the endowment will still keep growing.

    •  DessertStorms   ( @DessertStorms@kbin.social ) 
      4•8 months ago

      how to be a good billionaire

      No such thing. You cannot get to that point without trampling all over and exploiting others.

      give it all away at the first opportunity

      Similarly, a person who would do this wouldn’t hoard enough to qualify in the first place

      •  admiralteal   ( @admiralteal@kbin.social ) 
        2•8 months ago

        It takes far less money than a billion dollars be able to make world-changing charitable donations. You could, say, fund a light rail system (yes, even in a decently-sized city) or housing for every homeless person in your home town for vastly less than that.

        There’s only so much you can invest in yourself and your personal hobbies before there is nothing more you can realistically buy. Any normal, reasonable person, once already confronted with a luxurious lifestyle for themselves and their loves ones that will last forever, looks at all their extra money and decides it would make them feel good to make those world-changing charitable donations. And so they do it.

        I’m sure everyone’s point of balancing anxiety and lifestyle is different… but any reasonable person, it’s WAY before they hit a billion.

        In short: a normal person starts wildly giving away their wealth long before they become a billionaire. You have to be some kind of antisocial weirdo not to.

          •  livus   ( @livus@kbin.social ) 
            2•8 months ago

            Idk, maybe she played the long game.

            Her husband has turned into a sociopathic wealth hoarder

            • divorce or

            • keep her head down so she can redistribute all of it when he’s gone.

            Seems like she made a legit choice to me. I’d rather someone did the right thing late than not at all - I’d save my ire for the people who don’t.