Most Charity is Wasted

People keep complaining that a small part of the fortunes of Elon Musk and other billionaires could solve a lot of human problems. I doubt it.

News:

MacKenzie Scott has become one of the most active philanthropists of our time. After all, she's given away more than $26 billion during the past few years to thousands of organizations through her foundation Yield Giving.

While many of her recipients had never received a donation of that size and many have called them life-changing gifts, not everyone sees her work in the same way. Take Elon Musk, who recently became the world's first trillionaire, who thinks Scott's giving is actually making the world "worse off." ...

Melinda French Gates has also been openly frustrated with her fellow billionaire class, saying those who previously signed the Giving Pledge—a promise for the ultrawealthy to give away the majority of their wealth—could be doing more.

So we have an experiments. Large portions of the fortunes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos went to their wives in divorce settlements, and then given to charity.

How are we better off? What problems have been solved?

The California billionaire tax has now qualified for the ballot, and the governor is running for President on a promise for a nationwide billionaire tax. An economist says confiscating the wealth will not enrich other Americans.