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One solution to this problem is to impose a time limit. For instance: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (1994–projected: twenty years after the death of the survivor of Bill and Melinda) why: http://roadmap.rockpa.org/setting-a-time-horizon/ people that did: http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/time-limited-philanthropy/time...



Even in that case it can become very difficult to follow.

For example, there is - in my opinion - a low chance that the Gates Foundation will expend its resources within 20 years post the death of the last of the two.

They are likely to have something total equivalent to (in present dollars) perhaps $250-$300 billion to get rid of in the next 40-50 years. I'd be skeptical they can get rid of it that fast in their model. They're eroding that mass of capital (presently near $190b) so relatively slowly that by the time Gates is 80, they'll probably still be dealing with $200 billion in today's dollar.


Can a foundation create a foundation? That could "solve" the problem, from the management perspective.

A succession of massive, but formally time-limited foundations, administered in lockstep by dynasties of custodians would add a very interesting touch to any future scenario of fiscal neo-feudalism.


Isaac Asimov wrote a whole trilogy -- which now stands at some six or eight volumes... -- based on that very idea.




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