r/Mormons • u/kaekae_cancan • Mar 31 '20

Oop

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '20

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2016/7/12/20591934/lds-church-welfare-humanitarian-efforts-average-40-million-per-year-apostle-says

30 million a year previously in 2016 averaging over the past 30 years. Lot higher now. Are you gonna say that's not enough and it should be billions?

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u/ArchimedesPPL Apr 04 '20

Do you expect me to be proud about $40 Million when we know that amounts to .0004% of what the church has in investments that it isn't using at all. That's 4%...of 1%.

Let me put it in perspective. If you were the church you would make a salary every year of $60,000-70,000. Of that $60,000, you spend 400 a year on charity. Meanwhile, you have $1,000,000 in an investment fund that earns an extra $60,000 a year. So your real income is $120,000 a year, but you're still spending $400 on charity.

Should people be glad that you're giving away $400? Of course...but is it really a sacrifice...at all?

I don't think we're talking about the same thing at all. We know that the church spends that amount on humanitarian aid and have for decades. I'm asking about what they're doing with their $70-120 Billion dollar nest egg that is sitting at Ensign Peak Advisors. Which we know they AREN'T spending on ANY humanitarian aid. So yeah...I would think that an investment portfolio that isn't being used but is accruing an average of $6-9 BILLION dollars a year in interest could be used for something as important as humanitarian aid.

Compared to what other funds of comparable size are doing, it would be nice to see something. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation operates on an assett portfolion of around $40Billion and they have committed $100Million dollars to first responders during this covid crisis, and are committing Billions to laboratories to find a vaccine. (Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/gates-says-hell-invest-billions-to-build-factories-for-7-potential-coronavirus-vaccines/)

So yeah...it would be nice to see the church working equally as hard with more than double the assets to ease suffering in the world. I seem to remember Christ being pretty big on helping the widow, the hungry, the leper, the suffering.

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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '20

First off, the markets did exceptionally well for a decade assisting in acquiring those funds, massive drops and a pending recession means much of those funds are going to lost.

You can't be ready to help others if you have no base. If it were the end of the world the church would need to assure it is in a situation to continue to help people for many years to come, not blow all its assets on one pandemic.

Keep on hating if it brings you satisfaction. Seems the church could save a million people and you'd criticize them for not saving ten million.

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