What do Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Bloomberg have in common?

[onwebcam]

That is besides the obvious billionaire status.

The answer is they all got together the first week of this month to conclude that there are too many people on earth and they should find a way to "curb" that. (Not that some haven't already been doing exactly that)

Since I didn't get an invitation here's my input. I say we start with anybody who has meetings trying to figure out how to have less people. And anyone who thinks there are too many people should be next.

You've heard of the elusive Bilderberg now meet billionaireberg


May 24, 2009
Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation
America's richest people meet to discuss ways of tackling a 'disastrous' environmental, social and industrial threat
John Harlow, Los Angeles

SOME of America?s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world?s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.

Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America?s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.

These members, along with Gates, have given away more than £45 billion since 1996 to causes ranging from health programmes in developing countries to ghetto schools nearer to home.

They gathered at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobel prize biochemist and president of the private Rockefeller University, in Manhattan on May 5. The informal afternoon session was so discreet that some of the billionaires? aides were told they were at ?security briefings?.

Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the summit was unprecedented. ?We only learnt about it afterwards, by accident. Normally these people are happy to talk good causes, but this is different ? maybe because they don?t want to be seen as a global cabal,? he said.

Some details were emerging this weekend, however. The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an ?umbrella cause? that could harness their interests.

The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.

This could result in a challenge to some Third World politicians who believe contraception and female education weaken traditional values.

Gates, 53, who is giving away most of his fortune, argued that healthier families, freed from malaria and extreme poverty, would change their habits and have fewer children within half a generation.

At a conference in Long Beach, California, last February, he had made similar points. ?Official projections say the world?s population will peak at 9.3 billion [up from 6.6 billion today] but with charitable initiatives, such as better reproductive healthcare, we think we can cap that at 8.3 billion,? Gates said then.

Patricia Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gives more than £2 billion a year to good causes, attended the Rockefeller summit. She said the billionaires met to ?discuss how to increase giving? and they intended to ?continue the dialogue? over the next few months.

Another guest said there was ?nothing as crude as a vote? but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.

?This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers,? said the guest. ?They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.?

Why all the secrecy? ?They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government,? he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6350303.ece

[After Shock Media]

Lolz omfg rotflmao kkthxbi

[Dvae]

All I know is Bill Gates is secretary of Defense.

[sortie]

They all like the black cock.

[fris]

that news is so last week

[SilentKnight]

I'm surprised Bill Gates would agree to less population growth.

The more people there are on the planet, the greater his chances for finding at least one person who likes Vista.

[mynameisjim]

Why was Oprah there?

Did they need advice on how to pick authors and Doctors who are later proven to be total fakes? Or did they want to find the best way to start an all girls school that has a sex scandal within the first 3 months?

[DaddyHalbucks]

I wish they would tackle individual rights and government corruption.

[xNetworx]

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

I'm surprised Bill Gates would agree to less population growth.

The more people there are on the planet, the greater his chances for finding at least one person who likes Vista.

[Brujah]

They're all socialists?

[InsaneMidget]

I just read it, so it's got to be true!

[onwebcam]

Originally Posted by InsaneMidget

I just read it, so it's got to be true!

Maybe a second MSM source will make you feel better?

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7628545

Meeting of America's Richest About 'Need,' Attendee Says
Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Discuss Coming Together 'to Do More'
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and EILEEN MURPHY

May 20, 2009?

Under a cloak of secrecy, some of the world's wealthiest people gathered in an unprecedented meeting early this month in New York City "to see how they can join together to do more," according to one attendee.

Invited by the world's two richest men Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, along with David Rockefeller, a Who's Who of American wealth and influence gathered around a long table in a window-lined private room overlooking the East River on May 5.

"The overwhelming reason for the meeting was need -- that was the issue that galvanized everyone to participate," Patricia Stonesifer, senior advisor to the Gates foundation's trustees, Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, told ABCNews.com. "This was a group very committed to philanthropy coming together to see how they can join together to do more."

Gates and Buffett were joined by billionaire moguls Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg along with heavyweight philanthropists George Soros and others.

Together the attendees have donated more than $70 billion to charity since 1996, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

How is the Economy Treating You? Share Your Story With ABC News

A clandestine meeting of the country's rich and powerful, left off their public calendars and hidden from the press, is enough to spark the imaginations of conspiracy theorists everywhere, but attendees told ABC News.com the meeting was "100 percent about philanthropy" and it was not meant to be a secret.

"It was meant to be a private exchange but it wasn't a secret really, just a private meeting," Stonesifer said.

First reported by IrishCentral.com, ABCNews.com confirmed each of the attendees' presence at the meeting held at the residence of the Rockefeller University president on the campus of the Manhattan medical school.

It lasted about five hours, beginning in mid-afternoon and continuing through dinner, Stonesifer said.

"This particular group had never come together as a group before but many of the attendees had met in the past either individually or in smaller groups -- but never all at once," she said. "This was a great discussion and they agreed to continue the dialogue and meet again in the future. There were a lot of good ideas."

She said that the discussion "ranged from emergency relief efforts to scholarship efforts, to U.S. education efforts to global health." Another attendee who asked to remain anonymous described the meeting as "a private gathering of friends and colleagues to share their history and excitement about their philanthropy. [It was] a group together discussing a range of things they are working on."

When again asked about the meeting following ABC News.com's initial report Mayor Bloomberg said he sometimes holds private meetings that are "not going to be on the public schedulues. There are meetings all over this city and there are some very powerful people in this city."

Bloomberg who would not directly comment on the meeting or its outcome said: "You know I am very interested in private philanthropy, I think it has a unique place in our society in that with private dollars you can try new things, things that you can't do with public dollars."

There remain as many questions about the meeting's details as there are about the logistics behind its organization. How did some of the world's most public figures coordinate their schedules, travel, and security with no one in media knowing about it?

Charities Suffer in Recession

The meeting was reminiscent of the 1907 salons of America's foremost financiers held in the study of J.P. Morgan to discuss how private citizens could stop the economic panic. IrishCentral reported that each of the participants was given 15 minutes to propose how to best direct their charity given the global economic climate.

Charities are suffering during the crisis, and America's top philanthropists likely met to chart a new course for global charity, said Stacy Palmer, editor-in-chief of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

A meeting of the country's top philanthropists is "extraordinary" and "really unusual," Palmer said.

"I can't think of another time they've all been in the same room to talk about philanthropy," she said. "It's unprecedented."

Gates and Buffet have publicly committed their vast fortunes to the same philanthropic efforts, and Rockefeller, the chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services, comes from a long line of philanthropists.

Gates, the founder and former CEO of Microsoft, who topped the Forbes' Richest People list this year, has dedicated his foundation to eradicating infectious disease worldwide.

According to Portfolio magazine, Gates, who is worth about $59 billion, donated $3.7 billion from 2002 to 2006 and $10 billion from 2007 to 2008.

Warren Buffett, CEO of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, was ranked the second-richest man by Forbes this year with a net worth is estimated at $52 billion. Though his giving in the past year is not disclosed, he donated some $46.1 billion between 2002 and 2006, according to Portfolio.

In 2006, Buffet pledged $31 billion, the bulk of his fortune, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, doubling the organization's endowment virtually overnight.

Though the charitable interests of the participants differ, they have some things in common, said Bob Ottenhoff, CEO of Guidestar, a service that tracks nonprofit organizations.

For the most part, the attendees are all self-made. Their donations come from money they made in their own lifetimes, rather than old family fortunes, and they have committed to giving away their fortunes while still alive rather than through bequests after their deaths.

One exception is Rockefeller, scion of the Rockefeller fortune. In 2008, Rockefeller gave $137 million to charity.

Philanthropic Groups Have Global Reach

Though the philanthropic focus of each of the participants differs, many of their foundations have a global dimension.

"Each has their specialty. Gates focuses on world health, [CNN founder Ted] Turner on the environment and the UN, Soros is involved in civic engagement," Ottenhoff said.

Between 1997 and 2006 Turner has donated $1.6 billion, the bulk of which, $1 billion, went to the UN Foundation in 1997.

Soros, a fund manager worth $9 billion, gave $1.1 billion from 2002 to 2006 and $475 million from 2007 to 2008. Much of Soros giving goes to his family's Open Society Institute.

"These sorts of meetings don't happen very often. It is difficult for large philanthropic organizations to work together. The fact that these are all very engaged living donors means very interesting things can happen," Ottenhoff said.

Both Ottenhoff and Palmer agreed that it was likely the financial crisis that brought everyone together.

Charitable giving has taken a serious hit in recent months, and the power players likely discussed how to keep some nonprofits afloat.

"Nonprofits are going through a difficult time. The endowments of many foundations have dropped significantly," Palmer said. "Many people are not as able to give as much money as the used to.

"They are making a statement that donors should continue to give. They are likely planning on a sending a message that philanthropy needs to continue worldwide," she said.

Few of the participants, Palmer said, gave money quietly and she anticipated that the secret meeting was the first step in a plan that would eventually be made public.

A number of other people attended the meeting including: Winfrey, worth $2.7 billion, who donated some $50 million in 2007; Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Mayor of New York City, who is worth $11.5 billion and donated $205 million from 2007 to 2008; financier Eli Broad who donated $100 million in 2008; and financier Peter Peterson, who committed $1 billion in 2008.

[GatorB]

Originally Posted by Brujah

They're all socialists?

A socialist billionaire? That's an oxymoron. A socialist would believe in everyone sharing the wealth equally so by their very nature no socialist would ever be in a posistion to be worth $1 billion.