
George Soros is investing $500MM to help refugees in ways governments can’t - endswapper
http://qz.com/786167/george-soros-is-investing-500-million-to-help-refugees-in-ways-governments-cant/
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HillaryBriss
> _The money will go to existing companies, startups and businesses founded by
> migrants. And, Soros says, he expects to turn a profit._

George Soros's net worth is approximately $25 billion (according to a quick
google search).

I wonder why he doesn't just donate $500 million without the expectation of
making a profit. Wouldn't that be a faster way to help refugees than making
investments, which require due diligence and business plan analysis and
vetting of management and so forth?

I don't get these billionaire philanthropists.

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compliance_data
I'm guessing Soros doesn't actually expect to make a great deal of money from
these. It seems like by making an investment, he will help create a self-
sustaining set of business solutions rather than a donation. There is
reasonable evidence that "top-down" donations a la Jeffrey Sachs do not work,
and that helping people build tools creates an incentive to tackle solvable
problems first, then iterate until a reasonable patchwork set of
solutions/companies are effective.

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restalis
I fail to understand how funding is something that governments can't do.

