Current Events > Dartmouth's billionaire commencement speaker stuns graduates by giving them $1K

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13431817/UMass-Dartmouths-billionaire-commencement-speaker-stuns-graduates-thousand-dollars.html

tl:dr - UMass graduates were surprised as a billionaire speaker gave them $1,000 each. Robert Hale Jr., worth $5bn said $500 was to keep while $500 is for charity. Hale distributed a total of $1.2 million to the 1,200 gathered graduates

He gave away 0.00024% of his wealth as a tax write off.

Neat.

Crimson_Corsair posted...

He gave away 0.00024% of his wealth as a tax write off.

Neat.

To mostly privileged graduates who won't even need that much

inb-

Crimson_Corsair posted...

He gave away 0.00024% of his wealth as a tax write off.

Neat.

Aloc posted...

To mostly privileged graduates who won't even need that much

inafter

That's pretty awesome.

Also if half is for charity he really gave them $500 each.

Crimson_Corsair posted...

He gave away 0.00024% of his wealth as a tax write off.

Neat.

Don't sell him short. It was 0.024%, he's practically broke now. /s

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1e9362de.png

Excuse me if I'm not particularly impressed.

KajeI posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1e9362de.png

Excuse me if I'm not particularly impressed.

I made the same mistake and then noticed the article itself says UMass Dartmouth, which is a different, significantly less expensive school.

It's still $500 out of $15k in-state/$32k out of state but it's not exclusively already rich children getting it.

I dont think most of you know what a tax write-off is.

radical_rhino posted...

I dont think most of you know what a tax write-off is.

They do and they're the ones writing it off

Huh.

It's better than not doing it, I guess.

Cool I guess but Ive seen stories of people a lot less wealthy than him doing stuff like this, but it was either a lot more money or it was paying the whole classs student loans off

Gesture is still appreciated though, Im sure

Fair point, I fucked up.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3c99f5a3.jpg

Significantly better, still not impressed.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


GameFAQs has a 80/80 character limit in titles had to cut title to fit. Like I couldn't even fit $1,000 had to say 1K.

I appreciate most peoples generosity regardless of their wealth personally. Doesn't matter if said people could have donated more. Any amount is a good amount.

Before I say anything this is cool. Good for that guy.

But its a little telling how excited they are for 1000 bucks. I graduated a long time ago when cost of living was much lower but Im not sure even Id be this excited for 1000 bucks back then
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/031f8a06.jpg

A lot of people itt acting like $500 or $1000 isn't shit.

Imagine being that privileged. If someone gave me $20 I'd be ecstatic.

ClayGuida posted...

A lot of people itt acting like $500 or $1000 isn't shit.

Imagine being that privileged. If someone gave me $20 I'd be ecstatic.

Well it's a different school so yeah. It's a big deal.

ClayGuida posted...

A lot of people itt acting like $500 or $1000 isn't shit.

Imagine being that privileged. If someone gave me $20 I'd be ecstatic.

The difference for me is that when I get random money, it's not coming from someone I've already paid hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to.

If Amazon decided to give me 1000 dollars ofc I'd take it without complaining, but I wouldn't let them get away with using it to make themselves look better.

Woohoo they can pay off their student loans a week earlier, at some point in 2045 or so.

Some dude: Hey, heres a grand apiece.
CE: Hurrrr he couldve given more!

the people who probably are bitching the least about it are the college graduates who got the money.

most of them probably don't care this is a PR stunt. Most of them don't care about how little a % of that man's wealth it is, and most of them probably know he could give them absolutely nothing.

so like, who really cares? guy gets some positive PR(I don't even know his name. I heard his name 5 minutes ago and it's now forgotten) and the students get 500 bucks. Not really seeing the downside.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The ceremony's highlight came when the founder and CEO of wholesale telecommunications provider Granite Telecommunications, Robert Hale, Jr., received the UMass Dartmouth Chancellor's Medal for his incredible philanthropy work. Hale told the crowd about his career, including losing $1 billion nearly overnight, and urged them not to let failure define them, using his own life as an example of resilience and perseverance.

They paid the uni. During their graduation ceremony the uni gave him an award. He then gave the grads the money. Now the uni and the guy have a bunch of positive press.

It's a bit removed, but I'm low on sympathy for billionaires. But who knows, the articles are calling him a philanthropist, maybe he actually is one of the possible handful that're actually using the money to solve issues instead of hoarding it and/or being extravagantly wasteful.

When I ask myself "would he have done this if he wasn't a speaker getting an award for being such a nice rich guy at the time" I can't honestly say that I think the answer would be yes.