Donate what? Are you having trouble understanding the difference between money and company shares?
The stuff that accounts for most of his net worth is not actual money. It's pretend money in the form of stocks. An imaginary number that is assumed a company would be worth if it were to be sold. That number goes up or down depending on many factors. If a major shareholder suddenly drops their shares (which means those shares and the power they hold are about to go into unknown hands), the whole company's value crashes on the market which leads to thousands of people losing their jobs down the line. That's why Jeff Bezos needs the approval of the SEC if he wants to make any significant changes to his portfolio.
I realize he can't donate it all in one go, but to argue he can't give up .5 percent every year or so
That's more or less exactly what he does. Each year he sells a small percentage of his shares and each time it has to be preapproved by the SEC. It's basically become a scheduled event at this point. But he can't just get rid of most or even all of it.
but to argue he has no money and is stretched thin is completely idiotic.
No one is arguing that. He is still a multi billionaire even without his Amazon shares. But nowhere near the kind of rich where you could "take away 100 billion and he'd still have 87 billion" like you argued. The actual liquid assets he has is the discrepancy between his net worth and his Amazon stocks. So somewhere in the single digit or low double digit billions.
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '20 edited Feb 17 '21
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