Couple problems with this otherwise well-intentioned effort:<p>1. It&#x27;s a drop in the bucket compared to what governments spend on a regular basis trying to solve these problems. (Bill Gates has said as much.)<p>2. Private charity by the billionaire class is not a scalable solution. Historically most social advancement has happened through popular organization and government programs, not charity.<p>Silicon Valley itself is a product of government spending. The Internet and thus Facebook wouldn&#x27;t exist without billions of taxpayer investment in early stage high risk research and procurement via DARPA and other government agencies. That continues today (just a couple examples: Siri and autonomous vehicles).<p>If we are serious about accomplishing social change and &quot;long term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years,&quot; the answers lie in greater government investment in these areas. Just like Silicon Valley. And that means <i>all</i> Silicon Valley companies should be paying back to the government just as they would an early stage investor. Not as a &quot;noble choice&quot; but as an obligation. (Currently they get the core tech pretty much for free.) That would drum up an order of magnitude more funding for much-needed social projects.<p>I&#x27;d like to hear more Silicon Valley CEOs talk about that.